A field trip, which may also be termed as an instructional trip, school excursion, or school journey, is a school or class trip with an educational intent, in which students interact with the setting, displays, and exhibits to gain an experiential connection to the ideas, concepts, and subject matter. Field trips are also student experiences outside of the classroom at interactive locations designed for educational purposes.

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Field trips take students to locations that are unique and cannot be duplicated in the classroom. Each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the experience. Interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. Earlier course content suddenly becomes relevant as students assimilate and accommodate new understanding and cognition. The connection between the field trip venue and the classroom links the field trip’s experiential learning with prior experiences and learning from the classroom. Field trips are experiential, authentic social events that create a new way of knowing an object, concept, or operation. Quality experiences lead to deeper learning and interest development.
FIELD TRIPS
A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. Field trips provide alternative educational opportunities for children and can benefit the community if they include some type of community service. Field trips also provide students the opportunity to take a break from their normal routine and experience more hands on learning.
Field trips have always been an important means of teaching, as evidence of a long tradition in the history of education. Field trips are usually arranged by schools, have educational purposes, and take place in an interactive setting all of which have been shown to increase learning. Field trips as complex learning settings enable binding the curriculum to the environment and combining cognitive and affective aspects of learning. The field trip allows using observations, conducting short investigations and group discussion in an informal learning environment.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is also the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
FIELD TRIPS MAY BE PLANNED FOR FIVE PURPOSES
1) To provide firsthand experience
2) To stimulate interest and motivation in science
3) To add relevance to learning and interrelationships
4) To strengthen observation and perception skills, and
5) To promote personal (social) development
FIELD TRIPS AND LEARNERS PERFORMANCE
Today's students are visual learners and a field trip lets them touch, feel, and listen to what they're learning about, [which helps them] build on classroom instruction, gain a better understanding of topics, build cultural understanding and tolerance, and expose them to worlds outside their own.
The use of field trip in teaching and learning helps to bring about effective and efficient learning. Field trip is a group excursion away from the normal education environment for firsthand experience of an historic site or place of special interest. Each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the experience. Interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. Earlier course content suddenly becomes relevant as students assimilate and accommodate new understanding and cognition which in turn improves learning and academic performance.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the outcome of an experience depends on a person’s interests, motivation, life circumstances at that time, needs, and prior experiences and knowledge. Field trips offer an opportunity to motivate and connect students to appreciate and understand classroom concepts, which increase a student’s knowledge foundation, promoting further learning and higher level thinking strategies. With understanding comes confidence and intrinsic motivation. A successful and quality field trip requires teacher preparation and interaction. Some factors should be addressed before the trip. The experience needs to be planned. The teacher should pre-visit the venue to meet the staff and arrange the activities, and then prepare the students by orienting them to the venue’s layout, activities, and expectations. Student groupings should be set up prior to arrival at the venue. Chaperones need to be trained. The trip needs to connect to the curriculum, students should be actively engaged, and all students should be able to take part in the trip regardless of financial, physical or intellectual status. Teachers need to consider safety issues and should prepare to embrace the unexpected.
Campus field trips provide a cost-free alternative, while retaining the benefits of traditional field trips. Outside, students might explore around the school grounds, focused on a specific topic or concept. In the classroom, students might create their own classroom museum exhibits, or a local university or science museum might share mobile exhibits with the school. No matter whether the school is urban, suburban, or rural, ecology is everywhere. There is much to be learned from a vacant lot, the edge of a parking lot, a puddle, or a bush. Field trips can stimulate new learning, increased attitude towards science, trigger interest development, and provide many rewards to both the teacher and the students.

Education is the process which a society consciously transmits its knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. The school as one of the agents of socialization was established to mould, build and shape the youths to become useful to themselves and the society. Such conscious and intentional efforts usually focus in part on character development, behavior modification and values, orientation, especially among youths of the nation. School as centre of knowledge and it possesses the power to mould and shape the character of individuals in the society. However, distortion and aberrations in the character of students are being reflected in the pattern of students‟ classroom behavior. If not checked such behavior may constitute impediments to meaningful classroom learning, school growth and development. Prominent among such undesirable behavior is truancy among students.

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The objectives of school education in Nigeria are to provide students with academic and vocational skills as well as moral ethics. Notwithstanding, maintaining school attendance has become a major concern of parents, teachers, counselors, school administrators, and Ministry of Education, this is because truancy has become more common over the years and has created serious problems in the educational system today in Nigeria.
Teachers undertake an important mission in raising qualified manpower by realizing the objectives of the education system in the classroom environment. The main duty of the teachers is to create behavior change in the students in line with the learning process and objectives. The ability of teachers’ expertise and knowledge on pedagogical formation to have the expected effect on the student depends on the teacher-student relationship. The relationship of the teacher with the student may depend on a number of factors such as the environment in which the school is located, school culture and climate, educational program and equipment besides the characteristics of the teacher. However, for the students, the attitudes of the teacher in the classroom, that is, their thoughts, feelings and behaviors towards the students, are more important.
In other words, it is the ability of the teacher to employ the behavioral patterns necessary for the student to manage his or her own learning. In addition, the teacher is the authority figure that will enable the student to perceive himself/herself as valuable and sufficient. In a sense, the student proves his/her competence and value to the group to which he/she belongs, that is, to his/her classmates, through the teacher who is the leader of the class. The teacher, who settles in the position of expert of the family in childhood with the knowledge he/she has, gives the information that he/she is capable of performing the roles and requirements of an adult world during adolescence. Therefore, he/she plays a facilitating role for meeting the student’s needs of acceptance and being valued among his/her peers and recognition as an individual.
Truancy is running away from school or classes without the consent of parents or school authorities. That is habitual staying of student from school or classes without permission to avoid responsibilities such as assignments, test, examinations and other extra-curricular activities). Truancy is also keeping away from school during school hours with neither the permission of the parents or the school authorities’ view to avoiding punishment, dogging specific functions and neglecting certain lawful school duties.
However, illness, age, financial crises, social class, geographical area and institutional factors like teachers‟ attitude, ineffective administration, and high cost of education are responsible for truancy. Sometimes most of the students go to school without taking food due to scarcity of food at home as they belong to poor families. Consequently, they miss classes as they need an opportunity to take care for themselves.
TEACHERS ATTITUDE
Attitude is important to understand human behavior. It is defined as a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings. It is also the tendency to react in a certain way towards a designed class of stimuli. The attitude of teachers comes to the fore as they reflect upon the language that they use in teaching. Consciously or unconsciously, their attitudes play a crucial role in language’s “growth or decay, restoration or destruction”. Their attitudes, too, as part of their cultural orientation, influence heavily their younger students. The attitude of teachers towards teaching is significantly correlated with teaching success. In general, it may be concluded that there are indications that teacher’s attitudes have a positive relation with success in teaching.
Therefore, teachers’ attitudes and actions include: a genuine caring and kind teacher; willingness to share the responsibility involved in the classroom; a sincere sensitivity to the students' diversity, a motivation to provide meaningful learning experiences for all students; and an enthusiasm.
Attitude is very important when you are a teacher. It affects your students in many ways and can shape their learning experience.
TRUANCY
Truancy is defined as an action by a student being absent from school for no legitimate reason. Also, truancy is when a child missed school or class without an excuse from his/her parents or guardians. It also means a child leaving school or class without the permission from the teacher or principal. When a child is consistently late for school, he or she is considered to be a truant.
A truant therefore is a student who stays away from school without proper leave permission from school authority or the parents. Also, the students who always tend to keep themselves from studies and avoid attending classes are called truants. In short, truancy is a child who is absent from school on his own initiative without his or her parents‟ permission.
Truancy has caused a lot of harm to the educational system and has an ill-attitude on students academic performance, and moral lives which has caused most youths to exhibit negative attitude such as armed robber, prostitution, substance abuse, substance trafficking, and other social crime ranging from pick-pocketing to secret cult.
TYPES OF TRUANCY
There are three types of truancy which include: Habitual truancy, occasional truancy and casual truancy.
1. Habitual Truancy: This is type of truancy that occurs when a student (truant) constantly absent from school without the due knowledge or consent of his/her parents or the school authorities. Habitual truants are mainly those students who miss numerous full days of school academic activities. Their frequencies of absenteeism have become regular behavior or habit. It is important to note that students who are habitual truants have high chances of falling behind in school work, decline in their academic performance and even lose their attachment or positive attitudes towards school.
2. Occasional Truancy: This type of truancy occurs when a student does not constantly and continually absent himself from school. In this type of truancy, the student levels of absenteeism from school without the permission of parents or school authority is irregular. For example, a child whom the mother refuse going to school and was kept at home to help care for sibling and the child taken out of school for an out-of-season family holiday and so on are all instance of occasional truant.
3. Casual Truancy: This is the type of truancy which occurs when the students absence from school by chance. This type of truancy is not regular and constant but happens by chance. For example, students who remained lurking within sound of the school bell so that they could attend those lessons which interested them. A casual truant is student who keeps away from school and cuts up to 10 percent of the total number of working days during one academic session. A casual truant is an escapist to avoid unpleasant situation in the school, during school hours. He is amenable to suggestion and persuasion and hence most responsive. He is the marginal person to lapse into truancy if left alone and amenable to correction if properly handle.
4. Peer Group and Truancy: peer group means a small group of friends which have close relations with each other and they have regular interactions. They share views and exchange ideas with each other and do activities in groups. When children take steps into the stage of adolescence, they spend a large amount of time with their friends as compared to their parents. Those in a peer group have the same status and are about the same age, background, social and political affiliation.
Peer pressure is used to describe the demands for compliance to customs of the group and exhibiting dedication and loyalty to the members of the group. As members of a peer group, the group has more influence on the adolescents than they would have as on their own and they begin to recognize the value of united enterprise. Peer group is another factor that influences truancy. Peer groups are persons of the same age group, equals or friends with whom the child shares certain social characteristics. This social world to which they share same language, values, norms and mode of interaction may not be understood by the adults. However, it is through peer pressure that students are most likely to be introduced and involved in truant behaviors such as drinking, smoking, indecent act and drop out of school.
The peer group has effects on the student truant behaviors. As the child frees himself from dependency and control of the parents and other adults, he falls back on peer group for direction and control.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY AMONG STUDENTS
Several possible causes of truancy among students include student factors, family factors, school factors, and community factors. Also different teaching and learning styles, teachers‟ absenteeism, low teacher expectations, poor discipline and poor communication between teachers and students have an important relationship with truancy.
Furthermore, lack of parental supervision, poverty, misuse of substance and alcohol, lack of family support, household problems, broken homes, and households care duties are the contributory factors of truancy. Also, students‟ homework or assessment tasks, ailments, social incompetence, abnormal physical and mental health, lack of self-esteem, poor peer relationships, poor academic performance are some of the factors that contribute to truancy. However, school and family environment are the most influential factors in generating truancy among students. Truancy obstructs effective learning and causes poor academic performance of truant students‟ continuous keeping away from school lead to serious unwanted consequences for both the truant and the communities which caused deformation in the society.
TEACHERS ATTITUDE AND TRUANCY AMONG STUDENTS
School is considered as the extended home for individuals as a lot of time is spend in school. Thus, the members in the school setting especially the teachers have a vital role to play in many aspects of students‟ attitude and motivation. Teacher who show lack of respect for students and disregard the different needs among the students can make students attempt truant. Truants like to use “dislike teachers teaching methods and attitude” as the most common excuse for playing truant. Truants favor interaction with teachers and students besides being granted autonomy in the learning process.
However, positive teacher student interaction can encourage students‟ attendance in class. Teachers‟ characteristics such as rude, sarcastic, unfair, insult and embarrass students can influence truanting behavior though the impacts is rather small. Teachers‟ unpleasant and hatred toward certain students can contribute to students‟ truanting behavior. Also students are inclined to skip school when they feel that teachers and schools do not care for them or teachers apply authoritarian teaching methods. Teachers, who like to assign a lot of home-work to students, are always late to class and fail to perform effective teaching will discourage students from staying in school. the attitude of teachers has a lot to do in influencing students to become truant. Teacher’s attitude can cause students unexcused absence from schools.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, teachers with friendly and caring personality can prompt students to attend school as all students like to be taught by teachers who are very approachable and concerned about their students. It is of upmost importance for teachers to convey the message that they do care and understand how students feel. Teachers need to be aware that their characters can produce different influences on truancy based on the students’ gender and the school type.
Factors such as peer group factors, family background factors, school environment factors, teachers‟ factors and students‟ factors influence truancy among students. All hands should must be on deck and everyone playing their expected roles towards the education of the students both parents and teachers this is because society truancy is a threat to the achievement of functional education for values, knowledge, skill and national development

The prevalence of hypertension has been on the rise which causes a large global economic burden worldwide. Hypertension is a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular events, cerebra-vascular events and renal disease. Hypertension-induced kidney damage is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The coexistence of hypertension and obesity, hyper-lipidemia or diabetes results in worse renal dysfunction than isolated occurrence of either risk factor alone. Evidence from numerous clinical trials has demonstrated benefits of blood pressure (BP) control.
The target of 140/90mmHg that has been established from observational data remains fully justifiable. However, it is unclear whether the available results could be extrapolated to elderly patients. It is unknown whether the target of 140/90mmHg is most optimal goal to protect elderly renal function. It is debatable about the BP targets when hypertension in the elderly is complicated by coexist with obesity, hyper-lipidemia or diabetes. The lower target limit of BP for hypertension treatment is still not determined. On the other hand, Intensive hypertension treatment probably causes hypotension in elderly patients which is also an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease and of all-cause mortality. Usually hypotension including orthostatic and postprandial hypotension is neglected among elderly.
A blood pressure reading is given in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). It has two numbers.
• Top number (systolic pressure). The first, or upper, number measures the pressure in your arteries when your heart beats.
• Bottom number (diastolic pressure). The second, or lower, number measures the pressure in your arteries between beats.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Blood pressure is the force of your blood against the walls of your blood vessels as your heart pumps blood around your body. If this pressure becomes too high, you are said to have high blood pressure, or hypertension.
The only way to tell if your blood pressure is too high is to have it measured. High blood pressure usually causes no symptoms. That is why it has been called a “silent killer.” A single high reading may not mean you have high blood pressure. It should be confirmed on follow-up visits to your doctor or clinic. Blood pressure is measured as two numbers. The top number, or systolic blood pressure, is the pressure when your heart is beating. The bottom number, or diastolic blood pressure, is the pressure when your heart is resting between beats. A blood pressure reading of 130/80 is read as 130 over 80.

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Normal blood pressure in adults 18 and older is less than 120/80. People, who have blood pressure between 120 and 139 for the top number, or between 80 and 89 for the bottom number, may be more likely to develop high blood pressure unless they take steps to prevent it. In general, blood pressure that stays at 140/90 or higher is considered high. However, for people who have diabetes or Kidney Disease, a blood pressure of 130/80 or higher is considered high.
Blood pressure is usually checked by using a blood pressure cuff around your arm. It should be checked every time you visit your doctor or clinic. You may also be taught to check your own blood pressure at home. Keep a record of your daily blood pressure and show this to your doctor at each visit.
CAUSES OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Occasionally, high blood pressure is caused by an underlying medical illness. In these cases, treatment of the underlying medical condition may lower the blood pressure. However, the vast majority of people with hypertension have what is called essential hypertension or primary hypertension. This means that their elevated blood pressure is not related to any underlying medical condition. This type of blood pressure cannot be cured, but it can usually be adequately controlled with medication and/or lifestyle changes.
Some causes of high blood pressure are Foods, medicine, lifestyle, age, and genetics. Common factors that can lead to high blood pressure include:
• A diet high in salt, fat, and/or cholesterol.
• Chronic conditions such as kidney and hormone problems, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
• Family history, especially if your parents or other close relatives have high blood pressure.
• Lack of physical activity.
• Older age (the older you are, the more likely you are to have high blood pressure).
• Being overweight or obese.
• Race (non-Hispanic black people are more likely to have high blood pressure than people of other races).
• Some birth control medicines and other medicines.
• Stress.
• Tobacco use or drinking too much alcohol.
COMPLICATIONS OF HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
The excessive pressure on your artery walls caused by high blood pressure can damage your blood vessels as well as your organs. The higher your blood pressure and the longer it goes uncontrolled, the greater the damage.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to complications including:
• Heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure can cause hardening and thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which can lead to a heart attack, stroke or other complications.
• Aneurysm. Increased blood pressure can cause your blood vessels to weaken and bulge, forming an aneurysm. If an aneurysm ruptures, it can be life-threatening.
• Heart failure. To pump blood against the higher pressure in your vessels, the heart has to work harder. This causes the walls of the heart's pumping chamber to thicken (left ventricular hypertrophy). Eventually, the thickened muscle may have a hard time pumping enough blood to meet your body's needs, which can lead to heart failure.
• Weakened and narrowed blood vessels in your kidneys. This can prevent these organs from functioning normally.
• Thickened, narrowed or torn blood vessels in the eyes. This can result in vision loss.
• Metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is a group of disorders of your body's metabolism, including increased waist size, high triglycerides, decreased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol), high blood pressure and high insulin levels. These conditions make you more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
• Trouble with memory or understanding. Uncontrolled high blood pressure may also affect your ability to think, remember and learn. Trouble with memory or understanding concepts is more common in people with high blood pressure.
• Dementia. Narrowed or blocked arteries can limit blood flow to the brain, leading to a certain type of dementia (vascular dementia). A stroke that interrupts blood flow to the brain also can cause vascular dementia.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND KIDNEY FUNCTION
Over time, high blood pressure can damage blood vessels throughout your body. This can reduce the blood supply to important organs like the kidneys. High blood pressure also damages the tiny filtering units in your kidneys. As a result, the kidneys may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from your blood.
When you have high blood pressure, the blood flows through these blood vessels with a lot of force. This can harm these blood vessels and cause kidney disease. However, high blood pressure can also be a symptom of kidney disease. Kidneys help your body control your blood pressure.
PREVENTION
Reducing hypertension prevents heart attack, stroke, and kidney damage, as well as other health problems.
• Reducing salt intake (to less than 5g daily).
• Eating more fruit and vegetables.
• Being physically active on a regular basis.
• Avoiding use of tobacco.
• Reducing alcohol consumption.
• Limiting the intake of foods high in saturated fats.
• Eliminating/reducing Trans fats in diet.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, there is a strong relationship between hypertension and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Hypertension is an important cause of End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), contributing to the disease itself or, most commonly, contributing to its progression. On the other hand, hypertension is highly prevalent in CKD patients, playing a role in the high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

The essence of being in business by any business outfits is to produce for sales and profits. In order to remain in business an organization must generate enough sales from its products to cover operating costs and post reasonable profits. For many organizations, sales estimate is the starting point in budgeting or profit. It is so because it must be determined, in most cases, before production units could be arrived at while production units will in turn affect material purchases. However, taking decision on sales is the most difficult tasks facing many business executives. This is because it is difficult to predict, estimate or determine with accuracy, potential customers’ demands as they are uncontrollable factors external to an organization. Considering, therefore, the importance of sales on business survival and the connection between customers and sales, it is expedient for organizations to engage in programs that can influence consumers’ decision to purchase its products. This is where advertising and brand management are relevant. Advertising is a subset of promotion mix which is one of the 4ps in the marketing mix i.e. product, price, place and promotion. As a promotional strategy, advertising serves as a major tool in creating product awareness and condition the mind of a potential consumer to take eventual purchase decision.

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Advertising is a form of communication through mass media about product, services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor. Since communication is transfer of idea, attitude, information, mood, and so on from one person to another through a medium: it may be quite correct to define advertising as a form of communication. This is because in advertising, persuasive messages about the products, service or idea are made through a channel. This no doubt is similar to the communication process of a source sending a message through a channel to a receiver for a feedback.
In Nigerian economy, many manufacturers attempt to stimulate the demand for their products (goods/services). They are not satisfied merely to produce and trust to the chance that consumers will become aware of their products through the impersonal interplay of the market.
It is believed that if a better product is produced, consumers will not necessarily take special pain of informing themselves of its existence, its worth, its satisfying qualities and where it can be purchased. Advertising provides information that facilitates the job of the seller, helps customer make quick decision, informs customer of the presence of a product, price which it is being sold and placement (where it is available) thereby giving room for economy of time, energy and money in trying to look for the product. It also announces a new product, indicates new uses of existing products, reminds customer of an existing product, about the desirable qualities, stimulates or generates enquires and builds corporate image to mention a few. The effectiveness of these is expected to result in increased sales and profit. Profit can be viewed as the excess of total revenue over and above the total cost. Profit making in any organization is a function of many factors. There is prudence in vigorously and diligently pursuing organizational goals and objectives. One of such goals is maximization of the wealth of the owners in an environment where social responsibility is openly embraced.
ADVERTISING
Advertising is impersonal communication of information about products, services or ideas through the various media, and it is usually persuasive by nature and paid by identified sponsors it consists all activities that involve presenting to a group, non-personal, oral or visual sponsored messages regarding a product, service or idea “Advertising is directed to groups of people and is therefore non-personal. Companies usually sponsor advertising in order to convince the public that their products will benefit them.
More so, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. Advertising allows a company to tell the benefits of a product to a potential customer. Advertising can be in a newspaper or magazine, on radio or TV, a billboard, internet or a variety of other means. Advertising is generally paid for, as opposed to publicity, which is usually free.
FUNCTIONS OF ADVERTISING
There are four main functions of advertising:
1. Economical function: The nature of the economical function of advertising is first of all to stimulate sales and increase the volume of profits from the sale of a certain product for a certain unit of time. Advertising informs, creates the need for a product or service, and encourages people to purchase. The more people have responded to the ad, the better it is for the economy and the economical wellbeing of society.
2. Social function: Advertising information has a significant impact on the formation of the consciousness of each individual. When advertising is addressed to consumers, besides the promotion of a product, it also helps to form ideological values of the society and at the end has an effect on the character of social relations causes consumer instincts, encouraging people to improve their financial state, improves the culture of consumption. Comparing different products and services, the consumer, in any case, tends to get really the best.
3. Marketing function: Advertising is an important component of marketing. Advertising entirely connected to the tasks of marketing, whose final aim is the full satisfaction of customer needs concerning goods and services.
4. Communicating function: Advertising is also one of the specific forms of communication. It is designed to perform an appropriate communicating function, linking together advertisers and consumer audience by the means of information channels.
PRODUCT DISPLAY
Retail product displays are the fixtures in your store that hold or promote your products. The look of retail product displays relies heavily on your visual merchandising strategy. You or your visual merchandiser can arrange displays to showcase your products and increase sales. The merchandise display happens to be a special presentation of the products of a store that is used to attract and even entice consumers.
A well designed display will infuse exactly the right message into the minds of consumers. And if your display is placed in strategic areas of the store, your product can be exposed to a lot more potential customers than if it's sitting on a shelf.
PROFITABILITY
Profitability is the primary goal of all business ventures. This is simply a cash transaction between the business and the lender to generate cash for operating the business or buying assets.
Profitability is a measurement of efficiency – and ultimately its success or failure. A further definition of profitability is a business's ability to produce a return on an investment based on its resources in comparison with an alternative investment.
THE EFFECT OF ADVERTISING AND PROFITABILITY
The role play by advertising in the sales growth of an organization cannot be treated with just a wave of hand. Sales promotion in the form of advertising in promoting product and service awareness among consumers cannot be overstressed. Advertisement provides a platform for firms to create awareness about their products or services and how consumers can make the best out of such products. Thus, for advertising to be effective, it must have an appeal, attract attention, commands interest, inspire conviction and must provoke interest.
Advertising is an important tool of marketing as it helps the business achieve competitive advantage by selling its products and overcoming the rivals. Companies spend money on the advertisements and publicity in order to make sure that the masses are aware of its products, their features and advantages over the competitors. Basic purpose of advertisement is to increase the sales of the advertised products/companies.
Logically there has to be an impact of advertisement on sales because that is the reason why companies resort to advertising spending. What remains to be seen is though, which companies spend (more heavily) on advertising and which do not. A company that has a higher amount of sales revenue can afford to spend more on advertisements when compared to a company with lower sales revenue.
CONCLUSION
Companies need not only to produce good quality products, but also to inform consumers about their benefits, as well as to achieve clear positioning of their products in the minds of the consumers. In order to make a new product to succeed, it must have the desired parameters for consumers, to be unique, and consumers should have the information about its characteristics. To do this, companies need to use different means of promotion that is an essential part of a series of the marketing activities, a kind of information output to the consumer. The main way of promoting of products is the advertising. Advertising is any paid by a specific sponsor form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services. Organizations use advertising to tell about themselves, about their products and services, or about some of their activities for an audience selected in a certain way and with the hope that this message will cause a responding reaction.

Listening is the most critical communication skill. Students are involved in various listening situations 65℅ to 90℅ of the time, but most students have little or no listening instruction. Little listening instruction may be due to the lack of preparation, time or material .In addition, teachers may be uncertain whether they are good listeners themselves and may, therefore, hesitate to teach this skill “Listening is a fundamental language skill, but it is often ignored by foreign and second language teachers. While the other three language skills receive direct instructional attention, teachers frequently expect students to develop their listening capability by osmosis and without help.

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So, the listening skill should be a major area of concern to teachers and students of a second or foreign language, this is the concern of this chapter which tends to summarize what is essential to be known about the listening process as it relates to foreign language learning. It is intended to provide an overview of the key concepts and issues involved in understanding listening, it discusses the nature and types of listening, some constraints or difficulties faced by EFL learners in developing their listening comprehension abilities, and some suggested guidelines to consider when teaching this skill.

LISTENING SKILLS

For someone to claim to have listened with comprehension, he/she must have passed the stages of hearing, listening, auding and cognizing. By hearing, we mean the process by which speech sounds are received and modified by the ear. Listening is the process of identifying the component of sounds and sound sequences, whereby known words are recognizable. The process by which the continuous flow of words is translated into meaning is regarded as auding. Cognizing deals with the various aspects of knowing which are characterized by different conceptualizing experiences of which comparison is made, inferences drawn and categorized and sensory images formed. In other words, when one listens, certain activities, although not as easily noticed as those of the speaker, are performed. The ears provide a conduit through which the sounds reach the brain while the eyes provide the means of seeing, which is a vital component of the ways of identifying meaning. Listening can be seen as the ability to understand the language of the teacher used in instruction, comprehend the important details, abstract pertinent information, and to keep abreast with the training modules through which teachers provide information. Listening can thus be seen as a process, which involves more than mere hearing of sounds and noises, but including identifying, understanding and interpreting spoken languages. There are two interaction strategies that are necessary for listening. First, is when the speakers have to scale down their expressions and the second, is when the listeners have to scale up their interests, each in the light of the other’s capacities and demands

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Listening comprehension is explained as the process when the listeners understand the oral input from sound discrimination, prior knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical structures, stress, and intonation. It also involves linguistic knowledge and world knowledge which interact to create a mental representation and achieve comprehension. Listening comprehension is the ability of one individual perceiving another via sense, (specifically oral) organs, assigning a meaning to the message and comprehending it. Listening however, is the most important skill for language learning because it can be mostly used in normal daily life and develops faster than the other language skill which indicates that it makes easy the development of the other language skills

COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Communication process is regarded as one of the indispensable ways that put emphasis upon the fact that communication is regarded as one of the important ways of imparting knowledge and understanding to others. On the other hand, the individuals are able to acquire information as well in terms of various factors. It is stated that an aimless life is a meaningless life; hence, all the individuals have an aim to achieve. It is apparent that the aims and objectives are different for all individuals. All individuals make selection of various fields in accordance to their skills and abilities. The individuals make selection of various fields. These include, engineering, medical, law, education, architecture, management, administration and so forth. In order to excel in one’s chosen fields, and sustain one’s living conditions in an appropriate manner, it is essential for the individuals to augment their understanding in terms of meaning and significance of communication process. The exchange of information or passing of information, ideas and perspectives from one person to another or from one end to the other is referred to as communication. The meaning and significance of communication process is acknowledged through promoting useful interactions among individuals. It is a process, through which meanings are perceived and understandings are augmented among individuals.

LISTENING SKILLS AND COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Taking phone calls, and trying to complete another job while listening with one ear are not apt acts. Let’s show our interest by leaning forward and striving for good eye contact. Taking notes that also conveys to the speaker your seriousness about hearing accurately and completely is always handy as we cannot only rely on our memory, and details are easy to forget. It is rude to interrupt and hence when the speaker finishes, you can paraphrase the instructions. Asking pertinent questions in a nonthreatening manner is diplomacy considered. We should avoid criticizing or arguing when we are listening to a superior because our goals should be to hear accurately and to convey an image of competence. Listening to colleagues and subordinates: Much of our listening will take place during interactions with teammates. In these exchanges two kinds of listening are important. Critical listening enables us to judge and evaluate what we are hearing. We will be listening to decide whether the speaker’s message is fact, fiction, or opinion. We will also be listening to decide whether an argument is based on logic or emotion. Critical listening requires an effort on our part. We must remain objective, particularly when we disagree with what we are hearing. The diversity of cross-functional team players creates a new culture. Therefore, it is important to understand that in creating a cross functional team, you are fashioning a potentially powerful organizational vehicle. It is wiser to encourage the speakers to have a chance to complete the message before presuming it, but discriminative listening can be essential if you must understand and remember. It means you must identify main ideas, understand a logical argument, and recognize the purpose of the message. It is widely understood that listening to customers results in increased goodwill and profitability. The simple truth is that team members feel better about institutions and managers that value their opinions. Listening is an appreciation of caring persons associated to our professional life. Colleagues want to be cared about. By doing so, it will enormously boost human needs.

Students’ intrinsic motivation is necessary to trigger their initial interest in learning. Classroom theories can appear to be difficult if the learners fail to locate the content relevance with real-life scenarios, which greatly affects their understanding of the subjects. One of the most effective methods in learning biodiversity is by having a field trip. Field trip is an effective method to promote learners’ attention, confidence, and relevance because the program allows learners a chance to interact with experts to share their skills and knowledge with the fresh specimens. The concept of a field trip is centered on gaining learning experience through direct observations and firsthand information. This concept is useful to overcome the problem that limited learners’ satisfaction when studying phenomena which cannot be demonstrated or brought into a conventional classroom. The instructor’s lesson plan for the field trip is composed of students’ observations as they collect fresh specimens, as well as an analysis of the data parallel with the classroom theory
FIELD TRIP
A field trip, which may also be termed as an instructional trip, school excursion, or school journey; this can also be a school or class trip with an educational intent, in which students interact with the setting, displays, and exhibits to gain an experiential connection to the ideas, concepts, and subject matter. Field trips could also be seen as student experiences outside of the classroom at interactive locations designed for educational purposes.

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Field trips may be planned for five purposes: 1) To provide firsthand experience, 2) To stimulate interest and motivation in science, 3) To add relevance to learning and interrelationships, 4) To strengthen observation and perception skills, and 5) To promote personal (social) development. Field trips take students to locations that are unique and cannot be duplicated in the classroom. Each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the experience. Interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. Earlier course content suddenly becomes relevant as students assimilate and accommodate new understanding and cognition

THE IMPORTANCE OF FIELD TRIP

Field trips have several advantages connected to it. It is not just a fun picnic. It is stress- reliever and mood uplifter. Here are a few benefits attached to the field trips in schools:-
• Field trips are a fun-filled activity that alleviated the tension of the child.
• Field trips act as a tremendous refreshing activity that breaks the monotony of the classroom.
• Students get various opportunities to apply their theoretical knowledge in different places.
• Students can form bonds with other classmates.
• Communication and interaction skills of the students get enhanced in the process.
• In a new environment, students get further opportunities to discover their potential and explore new things.
• Students get to explore the local area and gain information about their traditions and religion.
From a teacher’s point of view, the field trip is a very beneficial activity. Teachers get new resources, and they can get creative with the learning process. Teachers can also include their personal experiences and help the students understand their surroundings and nature in a better manner.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.

FIELD TRIP AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Field trip is a study trip taken outside the classroom to obtain direct experience from a natural setting. It is organized to improve students’ interest in learning, for collecting data, materials or objects for classroom lessons as well as to observe objects or phenomena not possible to bring within the classroom. Field trip is a planned exercise taking place outside the four walls of the classroom. It offers opportunity for learners to get firsthand information on people, places and things for the permanency of learning experiences. Field trip is a tour planned by teacher to benefit the student learning process. The trip is planned for learners to experience theory in practice. Using field trip in teaching and learning leads to teacher‐learner interaction outside the classroom. These interactions take place in a new learning environment and result in a meaningful teaching and learning process. The basic technology curriculum requires child‐ centered and activity‐oriented teaching and learning processes. Nowadays it is imperative to use different teaching methods and learning processes as well as strategies to ensure student understanding. Since field trip is a method of teaching used to collect firsthand information in the course of investigation, this will enable both teachers and students to create meaningful and productive learning both on the field and in schools. Field trip can be used as a chance to collect data for later analysis, to generate artwork and stimulate discussions both on site and back at schools and universities in tutorials, seminars and workshops. The use of field trip as a method of teaching helps to bring about an effective learning of Basic Technology. It is of enormous benefit because it enhances the observation of learning experiences in the field of engineering works where engineering materials such as plastic, ceramics, rubber, wood and metals are used. Field trips are an interactive method of teaching which give both male and female students equal opportunity to widen their practical and cultural experience by varying their learning environments.

The financial system of any country provides the catalyst through financial intermediation for productive activities to ensure economic growth and development. The Nigerian financial sector is undoubtedly the most important in the political-economic systems; because, it provides the necessary lubricant that keeps the wheel of the economy turning and it is an engine for economic growth. Electronic banking is the use of electronic and telecommunication networks to deliver a wide range of value added products and services to bank customers. The use of information technology in banking operations is called electronic banking. Electronic banking is a product of e-commerce in the field of banking and financial services. In what can be described as Business-to-consumer (B2C) domain for balance enquiry, request for cheque books, recording stop payment instruction, balance transfer instruction, account opening and other forms of traditional banking services. Banks are also offering payment services on behalf of their customer who shop in different e-shops.

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Internet-banking is the provision of banking services to customers through the internet it includes the provision of retail and small value banking products and services through electronic channels as well as a large value electronic payment and other wholesale banking services delivered electronically.
Almost all banks in Nigeria and all over the world offer online, real-time banking services. Banks that are not able to brace up to this new development are rapidly losing their customers. Online, real-time banking system has now become commonplace as customers are offered the ease of operating an account in any branch of their bank’s network.
INTERNET BANKING
Internet banking uses technology and brings the bank closer to the customer. Internet banking refers to systems that enable bank customers to get access to their accounts and general information on bank products and services through the use of bank’s website, without the intervention or inconvenience of sending letters, faxes, original signatures and telephone confirmations. If one has access to the internet and a computer all they need to do is proceed to their banks website and login. From there they have access to all of their accounts that they have at bank. Transfer funds between accounts with ease. One can also use online banking to see how much money they have in their accounts and can also trace all their transactions.
Internet banking has changed manual and traditional ways of operating business in the banking sector and is being replaced by the highly appealing technology which is based on automation and interconnection of computers and other electronic gadgets in such a way that paper invoice, ledger books, printed materials and business trips have all been replaced with online billings and payments, elaborate website with product notification and real-time teleconferencing across continents and time zones. The e-banking is changing the banking and financial sector in terms of the nature of core products or services and the way these are packaged, suggested, delivered and consumed. E-banking is a powerful and invaluable weapon pivoting development, supporting growth, elevating innovation and improving competitiveness
PROFITABILITY
Profitability is a measurement of efficiency – and ultimately its success or failure. A further definition of profitability is a business's ability to produce a return on an investment based on its resources in comparison with an alternative investment.
Profitability is also ability of a company to use its resources to generate revenues in excess of its expenses. In other words, this is a company's capability of generating profits from its operations.

There are four key areas that can help drive profitability. These are reducing costs, increasing turnover, increasing productivity, and increasing efficiency. You can also expand into new market sectors, or develop new products or services.
DETERMINANT OF PROFITABILITY IN BANKS
A) RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE):
Return on equity (ROE) is a closely watched financial ratio among equity investors. It is a strong measure of how well the management of a firm creates value for its shareholders. This particular strategy could be very cost-effective in the emerging markets where financial data is not readily accessible.
It is a measure of financial performance calculated by dividing net income by shareholders' equity. Because shareholders' equity is equal to a company’s assets minus its debt, ROE is considered the return on net assets. ROE is considered a measure of a corporation's profitability in relation to stockholders’ equity.
B) RETURN ON ASSET (ROA):
Return on assets (ROA) is an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. ROA gives a manager, investor, or analyst an idea as to how efficient a company's management is at using its assets to generate earnings.
Return on Assets (ROA) is a type of return on investment (ROI) metric that measures the profitability of a business in relation to its total assets. This ratio indicates how well a company is performing by comparing the profit (net income) it’s generating to the capital it’s invested in assets. The higher the return, the more productive and efficient management is in utilizing economic resources.
Since company assets’ sole purpose is to generate revenues and produce profits, this ratio helps both management and investors see how well the company can convert its investments in assets into profits. You can look at ROA as a return on investment for the company since capital assets are often the biggest investment for most companies. In this case, the company invests money into capital assets and the return is measured in profits.
INTERNET BANKING AND PROFITABILITY IN BANKS
The gyration of information technology has influenced almost every aspect of life, among them is the banking sector. Introduction of electronic banking has revolutionized and redefined the ways banks were operating. As technology is now considered as the main contribution for the organizations’ success. So the banks, be it domestic or foreign are investing more on providing the customers with the new technologies through internet-banking.
The availability of internet banking is expected to affect the mixture of financial services produced by banks, the manner in which banks deliver these services and the resulting financial performances of these banks. Whether or not this extreme view proves correct and whether banks take advantage of these new technologies will certainly depend on their assessment of the profitability of such a delivery system for their services. Industry analysis outlining the potential impact of internet banking on revenue growth, risk profile and cost savings of the banks have also generated notable interest and speculation about the impact of the Internet on the banking industry. In fact, E-Banking eliminates physical and geographical boundaries and limitations of banking services.
CONCLUSION
The introduction of E-banking has indeed had a positive effect on the profitability of the bank since it was introduced. It has also improved the banks customer relationship by rendering effective services. However, network failure from internet connection and the break-down of ATMs are major challenge facing customers using e-banking.

Not every child is able to self-assess their learning in the classroom. Oftentimes students think they have a better understanding of a concept than they actually do, and therefore rate themselves higher than they are actually performing in the classroom. At this time, the teacher has observed the students writing fours for themselves for every skill, even before the skills have been taught. Instead of marking themselves with a zero or a one which is where they are performing, they will rate themselves a four. Other students will mark themselves a two or a three when they are at a four rating. They are able to verbally teach another student how to do a skill or perform a task. The self-assessments are to identify areas of strengths and areas of weakness. Both of these circumstances present a challenge for the teacher and the learner. The goal is to ensure that all children be aware of their own learning needs and strengths within each unit.

Self Assessment

Self-assessment could mean that students simply check off answers on a multiple-choice test and grade themselves, but it involves much more than that. Self-assessment is more accurately defined as a process by which students 1) monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and behavior when learning and 2) identify strategies that improve their understanding and skills. That is, self-assessment occurs when students judge their own work to improve performance as they identify discrepancies between current and desired performance. This aspect of self-assessment aligns closely with standards-based education, which provides clear targets and criteria that can facilitate student self-assessment. The pervasiveness of standards-based instruction provides an ideal context in which these clear-cut benchmarks for performance and criteria for evaluating student products, when internalized by students, provide the knowledge needed for self-assessment. Finally, self-assessment identifies further learning targets and instructional strategies (correctives) students can apply to improve achievement.

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Thus, self-assessment is conceptualized here as the combination of three components related in a cyclical, ongoing process: self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and identification and implementation of instructional correctives as needed. Essentially, students identify their learning and performance strategies, provide feedback to themselves based on well-understood standards and criteria, and determine the next steps or plans to enhance their performance

The Self-Assessment Process

Self-monitoring, a skill necessary for effective self-assessment, involves focused attention to some aspect of behavior or thinking. Self-monitoring students pay deliberate attention to what they are doing, often in relation to external standards. Thus, self-monitoring concerns awareness of thinking and progress as it occurs, and as such, it identifies part of what students do when they self-assess. A second component of self-assessment, self-judgment, involves identifying progress toward targeted performance. Made in relation to established standards and criteria, these judgments give students a meaningful idea of what they know and what they still need to learn. The standards are benchmarks and the criteria are guidelines for interpreting the level of performance students have demonstrated. The development and application of criteria in evaluating current performance enable meaningful evaluations, as long as the criteria are appropriately challenging. Students who are taught self-evaluation skills are more likely to persist on difficult tasks, be more confident about their ability, and take greater responsibility for their work. The third essential step is that students choose subsequent learning goals and activities to improve partially correct answers, to correct misunderstandings, and to extend learning. Because students at this stage need skills in determining learning targets and further instruction that will enhance their learning, they should be aware of options for further goals and instruction. Once the appropriate “instructional correctives,” as they are referred to, are complete, students resume self-monitoring. The growing literature on formative assessment has implications for self-assessment. Formative assessment can be defined as employing appropriate activities to provide feedback to enhance student motivation and achievement during instruction as students learn. Providing helpful information as learning occurs contrasts with providing feedback solely after instruction. There is substantial evidence that appropriate formative assessment activities relate positively to student motivation and achievement.

Academic performance

Student performance is measured using grade point average (GPA), high school graduation rate, annual standardized tests and college entrance exams. A student's GPA is typically measured on a scale of zero to four with higher GPAs representing higher grades in the classroom. Graduation rates are collected by state and federal education officials as a baseline measurement of secondary education performance. Each state conducts annual tests at the elementary, middle and high school levels to determine student proficiency in subjects like English and mathematics. These tests are also used to comply with federal education standards. School districts also track student performance on the ACT and SAT to determine readiness for higher education

Self assessment and academic performance

Self-assessment has been found to be a powerful educational tool for learning. Students are encouraged to participate in a legitimized, elaborated, and systematic process that supports learning. The students take ownership of their learning. Participating in self-assessment helps prevent unfair judgments. Students are also more highly motivated and engaged when they understand the criteria and standards. Through participation in this collaborative community, students are more cooperative and able to peer evaluate and support each other’s learning. Self-assessment has been found to have a profound impact on students’ performance in the classroom. Assessment involves two inter-related activities. First, there is a development of knowledge and an appreciation of the appropriate standards which may be applied to any given work. Students learn something and know what counts as good work. Second, there must be a capacity to make judgments about whether or not the work involved does or does not meet these set standards. By students participating in their own learning, and thereby understanding this knowledge, they are capable of then assessing if they met the standards of learning. Research has shown that classroom based assessment suggests that student learning and higher task performance are achieved by providing task oriented feedback to students. Students elicit discussion through their assignments and discussions. The teacher gathers evidence during this time of progress towards the goal. In addition, there has been a considerable interest in understanding and advancing evidence based practices that facilitate, validate, and support the involvement of students with cognitive disabilities in meeting standards of learning within the general education classroom. By promoting self-determination as a means of meeting these learning demands, more students can effectively progress in the general education classroom. By teaching problem solving skills, decision making, and self-directed learning strategies, more students can make progress within the standards of learning. By teaching goal setting, decision-making, and choice making, students are learning the components of self-directed learning and self-determined behavior. There has been an established literature base for validating the effect that teaching these components has on students with cognitive disabilities. Students with cognitive disabilities can learn to direct their learning and instruction in the context of learning within a general education classroom. It is interesting to note that there have been studies completed that found students with cognitive disabilities did not make the same gains in self-contained classrooms as they did within general education classrooms with same age peers. For example, one study was done in a middle school where they taught five middle school students a specific set of learning behaviors to be exhibited each day during their learning. These behaviors were called “classroom survival skills”. These behaviors included being in class when the bell rang, having appropriate materials for learning, greeting the teacher and other students, asking and answering questions, sitting up straight and looking at the teacher and other students when they made comments, and using a planner. Positive behaviors were noted during the study as well as positive changes in their learning. In a similar study of four high school students, they taught the students to set goals, monitor their work completion, and evaluate their performance towards their goals. Improvements were noted for all students.

Self-concept may be understood as a perception every human has of himself or herself. It is a component of personality development and indicates who we are and how we fit into the world. self-concept is a set of perceptions or reference points that the subject has about himself, a set of characteristics, attributes, qualities and deficiencies, capacities and limits, values and relationships that the individual knows to be descriptive of himself and which he perceives as data concerning his identity. As every single individual has his own individuality so, they believe different about themselves. Individuals choose their own ways to understand themselves. They can explore the qualities and capabilities they possess and how can they perform accordingly. These biased words about oneself, once created take part in influential role in individual advance growth and maturity. However, academic self-concept is broadly conceptualized as how a student views his/her academic ability when compared with other students. For him/her, to be academically successful individuals must be identified with domain of academics. Academics must be part of their self-concept; more specifically, they must have a positive academic self-concept.

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Self-concept influences students academic performance; however, the level of effort exerted by students in learning to a large extent contributes significantly to students’ self-concept in boosting their academic performance. In view of this, teachers, parents, and indeed all stakeholders have it as a duty to consider various factors that can influence the development of positive self-concept among children when dealing or interacting with them. Also, they must help, monitor and supervise students to exert some level of effort in learning since such effort boost students’ academic performance.

SELF CONCEPT

Self-concept is considered to comprise various dimensions, areas or facets, some of which are more related to certain personality aspects (physical, social, emotional), while others appear to be more linked to academic achievement (in different areas and subjects). Self-concept is the set of perceptions or reference points that the individuals has about himself; the set of characteristics, attributes, qualities and deficiencies, capacities and limits, values and relationships that the individuals knows to be descriptive of himself and which he perceives as data concerning his identity. It is the set of knowledge and attitudes that we have about ourselves; the perceptions that the individual assigns to him and characteristics or attributes that we use to describe ourselves. It is understood to be fundamentally a descriptive assessment and has a cognitive nuance. The importance of self-concept stems from its notable contribution to personality formation. It is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question "Who am I?"
It is therefore clear that self-concept is a central construct which develops through interactions with others. It is technologically conceived that it is the locus of the experience that represents the total being whose physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions cannot be separated except artificially. Self-concept includes both descriptive as well as evaluative aspects; self-concept can be differentiated from other constructs which it is related to, such as academic performance.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Academic achievement is student’s accomplishments in a given academic field. It refers to how students become successful in achieving their educational goals. Educational institutions usually maintain record of student’s academic achievement in order to find out whether their current educational policies and styles are working or not, and to decide what kind of changes are required in order to increase student’s academic achievements.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement. Student performance is affected by different factors such as learning abilities, gender and race.

STUDENTS SELF-CONCEPT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Self-concept is defined as the intellectual attitude of personality. It is commonly referred to the complex, planned and self-motivated system of opinions, outlooks, and thoughts that each human comprehends to be accurate practically regarding his survival. Self-concept and academic performance are collaborative and mutual. Each one is equally emphasizing to the degree that any change whether positive or negative in one enables the appropriate variation in the other. Self-concept have great impact on the achievement of students and it helps in determining the level of competence among students’ potentials. She also concluded that the way students behave in academic settings depends upon self-awareness. Individuals approach regarding his/her talents and hidden potentials strengthen his/her belief in self and the individual get better grades in school.
Therefore, the students must first exhibit some level of effort in learning what they have been taught both in the school and at home in order for them to have total development both morally, economically and academically. The effort exhibit in learning what they have been taught will boost their ability to understand and apply what they have been taught appropriately. In the long run, their academic performance will increase significantly.
In other words, if the students who have dedicated enough time in learning what they have been taught are able to imbibe the content as expected, they will be performing well and significantly in their academic work. Therefore, student’s self-concept constructs of religion, physical, social, economic, esteem and educational orientation do not directly predict their academic performance but rather it predict students’ academic performance indirectly through the level of effort exhibited by students in learning.

CONCLUSION

Students with high self-concept are more popular, cooperative and persistent in class work, with low anxiety level, more supportive families and expectations of academic success. However, it should be noted that students with high and positive self-concept needs to interact with other peers and fellow learners in school in order to exchange valuable information, and to maintain high and positive self-concept and academic performance. Thus, more school life activities and experiences influence and determine the development of self-concept and academic performance. In addition, students’ exposure to academic, social, and extracurricular activities within the campus contributes to the development of students’ self-concept and academic performance,
In conclusion, there is a vital, and a positive correlation between self-concept and academic achievement and also they are so linked as one effects the other and vice versa.

Education is the process which a society consciously transmits its knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. The school as one of the agents of socialization was established to mould, build and shape the youths to become useful to themselves and the society. Such conscious and intentional efforts usually focus in part on character development, behavior modification and values, orientation, especially among youths of the nation. The school as centre of knowledge and it possesses the power to mould and shape the character of individuals in the society. However, distortion and aberrations in the character of students in poor school environment are being reflected in the pattern of students‟ classroom behavior. If not checked such behavior may constitute impediments to meaningful classroom learning, school growth and development. Prominent among such undesirable behavior is truancy among students in poor school environment. Absenteeism interrupts the learning process. The educational system is founded on the assumption that students will attend school
Direct and indirect costs of absenteeism are extremely high to the individuals, schools, families and communities. First of all, absenteeism in school negatively affects student learning experience and academic achievement. Absenteeism reduces the success because students miss their education time. This also results in loss of other students’ time since teachers must use additional time to compensate, which leads to lost teaching time for all students. This effect is observed significantly more in progressive interconnected courses such as courses that have to do with calculations. Students who miss certain classes have difficulty learning other subjects and are forced to expend more effort. When students fall behind in their learning, they lose interest and fail. In addition, students feel an increasing sense of alienation toward their classmates, teachers and their school. Also absent students can set a bad example and encourage absenteeism among other students.

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Absenteeism is not only an indicator of low academic achievement but also a strong indicator of diminished social and life success. Absenteeism makes it difficult to create a solid foundation in terms of discipline and sense of responsibility. Therefore, it leads to problems in work and discipline habits in future work life. This leads to potential consequences, such as unemployment or low income and inability to work at a regular job. Moreover, as absenteeism increases, students are inclined to experience psychological problems such as depression or behavioral disorders. They may also exhibit behavioral patterns such as becoming involved in violence inside and outside of the school, teenage pregnancy, quitting school and acquiring harmful habits. In other words, absenteeism for young people is considered as a predictor of academic failure and leads to many other risk factors. If no measures are taken, absenteeism may be the beginning of a process ranging from academic failure to dropping out of school.
SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
A school environment is broadly characterized by its facilities, classrooms, school-based health supports, and disciplinary policies and practices. It sets the stage for the external factors that affect students. Basically, it refers to an educational approach, cultural context, or physical setting in which teaching and learning occurs.
A positive school environment is defined as a school having appropriate facilities, well-managed classrooms, available school-based health supports, and a clear, fair disciplinary policy. There are many hallmarks of the academic, disciplinary, and physical environments of schools with a positive climate.
TRUANCY
Truancy is any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from compulsory education. It is a deliberate absence by a student's own free will and usually does not refer to legitimate excused absences, such as ones related to medical conditions.
Truancy is running away from school or classes without the consent of parents or school authorities. That is habitual staying of student from school or classes without permission to avoid responsibilities such as assignments, test, examinations and other extra-curricular activities. Truancy is also keeping away from school during school hours with neither the permission of the parents or the school authorities’ in view to avoiding punishment, dogging specific functions and neglecting certain lawful school duties.
More so, illness, age, financial crises, social class, geographical area and institutional factors like teachers‟ attitude, ineffective administration, and high cost of education can also be responsible for truancy. Sometime most of the students go to school without taking food due to scarcity of food at home as they belong to poor families. Consequently, they miss classes as they need an opportunity to take care for themselves.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY
School and family environment are the most influential factors in generating truancy among students. Truancy obstructs effective learning and causes poor academic performance of truant students‟ continuous keeping away from school lead to serious unwanted consequences for both the truant and the communities which caused deformation in the society.
The causes of student absenteeism are complex and multi-faceted. The factors associated with absenteeism are classified into three fundamental areas: individual, family and schools
Individual Factors: Students' individual factors may negatively affect school attendance. Research indicates that absenteeism increases by seniority in high school and most frequently happens at age 15. Absentee students usually do not feel safe at school. They feel academically or socially inadequate. They find classes boring and their positive experiences related to school are less than those who attend school regularly. Thus, self-esteem, confidence, concentration, self-management and social skills of these students are low. They feel powerless in the school and think other students do not respect them other results include not wanting to get up in the morning, receiving strict punishment, sleeping late, not completing homework, being in a grade that is one above or one below the regular grade level, switching to another school in the middle or the beginning of the school year, feeling extreme test pressure, feeling constantly ill, and having siblings who are regularly absent. Participating in fun activities and socializing with their peers outside of school are also among the reasons. Interestingly, some students are absent since they find courses difficult and some others are absent because they find the courses monotonous and boring.
Family factors: Another major reason for absenteeism is "family factors". A student's parent has a significant impact on his attendance in school. the following are reasons for student absenteeism arising from the family: family's socio-economic level; family's need for student to work; parenting skills; psychological problems; support or neglect; alcohol or drug problems; criminal behavior the lack of consistency; divorce; inter-parent conflicts; family structure, such as a single parent; interest or control level for the student's behavior; parents have low education level; negative past school experiences; lack of participation in school or not understanding procedures; and not providing environment for the student to do homework. The level of respect the family has for education is seen as a role model for students.
The primary responsibility of parents is to ensure their children regularly attend school. Conditions at home have a significant impact on children’s attendance and on their promptness. Poor family control and lack of persistence is perhaps one of the most important factors behind school absenteeism.
School factors: A hostile school environment can also cause truancy. Students who lack friends or are being bullied are likely to skip school. This factor is especially applicable to students who look, act or dress differently. In addition, some kids may face peer pressure to skip class. Truancy is seen among students who lack confidence in their mental abilities or have learning disabilities. High truancy rates are seen in schools that have antagonistic relationships between staff and students and a poor attendance policy.
A school’s attitude and rules against absenteeism are factors that are contribute to the absenteeism problem. Schools’ procedures are inconsistent and do not produce meaningful results in reducing absenteeism. Students are not receiving clear messages from the school about the importance of attendance. Tolerant policies or lack of firm implementation for existing policies gives the wrong message to students and parents about the importance of attendance also indicated that inconsistency of policies, lack of meaningful results and poor school record keeping have a negative effect on students.
Although there are various reasons for absenteeism, one of the most important of these reasons is in not liking the school". If the school is cold, not secure or if there is a climate of tolerance for bullying, students will prefer not to be in school. In particular, conflicts with peers and teachers, exposure to bullying, and dislike of teachers are important causes of absenteeism. In a school environment where students do not feel a commitment to school, they would not want to attend, resulting in increased feelings of alienation. Commitment to the school is formed by the student’s perceptions about respect, love and values they receive in the school. In the school environment where there is a perceived value and an emotional commitment, there will be a sense of security. Therefore, in such a school environment, students' attendance and participation increases.
TYPES OF TRUANCY
There are three types of truancy which include: Habitual truancy, occasional truancy and casual truancy.
1. Habitual Truancy: This is type of truancy that occurs when a student (truant) constantly absent from school without the due knowledge or consent of his/her parents or the school authorities. Habitual truants are mainly those students who miss numerous full days of school academic activities. Their frequencies of absenteeism have become regular behavior or habit. It is important to note that students who are habitual truants have high chances of falling behind in school work, decline in their academic performance and even lose their attachment or positive attitudes towards school.
2. Occasional Truancy: This type of truancy occurs when a student does not constantly and continually absent himself from school. In this type of truancy, the student levels of absenteeism from school without the permission of parents or school authority is irregular. For example, a child whom the mother refuse going to school and was kept at home to help care for sibling and the child taken out of school for an out-of-season family holiday and so on are all instance of occasional truant.
3. Casual Truancy: This is the type of truancy which occurs when the students absence from school by chance. This type of truancy is not regular and constant but happens by chance. For example, students who remained lurking within sound of the school bell so that they could attend those lessons which interested them. A casual truant is student who keeps away from school and cuts up to 10 percent of the total number of working days during one academic session. A casual truant is an escapist to avoid unpleasant situation in the school, during school hours. He is amenable to suggestion and persuasion and hence most responsive. He is the marginal person to lapse into truancy if left alone and amenable to correction if properly handle.
SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT AND TRUANCY AMONG STUDENTS
School environment means the extent to which school settings promote student safety and student health, which may include topics such as the physical plant, the academic environment available, physical and mental health supports and services, and the fairness and adequacy of disciplinary procedures, as supported by relevant research and an assessment of validity. The school is expected to provide an atmosphere that is conducive for proper learning and teaching as well as serving as a place to be loved by the students. However, in some situations school assists in making students to engage in truancy. For example, in a situation where a school is having teachers who are harsh to students, where there is high level of bullying, inappropriate school environment, boredom, poor management, poor relations with teachers and in some cases irrelevance of the curriculum, then there must be high tendency of truancy among the students. Harsh teachers, negatively school experience such as bullying, boring and boredom classes, inappropriate school environment, indiscipline prevalent in the school, lack of interest and co-curricular activities are some of the factors influencing truancy among students that come from the school itself.
The school environment has to be appealing to the students when, it is not attractive to them the students will resist and resent. To make the school attractive, the very location of the school, its surroundings and classrooms where study takes place have to be good. The environment is expected to have quality and qualified teachers that are committed. In an environment where teachers are not serious about their job can encourage students to become truants. Students can become truants when teachers teach only to earn a livelihood and not taking their profession as a sacred duty with commitment and dedication in building, molding, and shaping the future of the children. When this situation prevails in the school, students can get an aversion to the school, its staff and environment and they can become truants.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the school environment has to be appealing to the students when, if it is not attractive to them the students will resist and resent. To make the school attractive, the very location of the school, its surroundings and classrooms where study takes place have to be good. The environment is expected to have quality and qualified teachers that are committed. However, the objectives of education is to provide students with academic and vocational skills as well as moral ethics National Policy on Education, Notwithstanding, maintaining school attendance has become a major concern of parents, teachers, counselors, school administrators, and Ministry of Education, this is because truancy has become more common over the years and has created serious problems in the educational system.

More often than not, truancy is the first sign of trouble, the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his/her way. When young people start skipping schools, they are telling their parents, school officials and the community at large that they are in trouble and need help, if they are to keep moving forward in life
TRUANCY
The term truancy has been conceptualized by different authors in different ways. Truancy is defined as a “deliberate absence from school without parental knowledge. Also truancy is “when a student’s stays away without permission, anyone who absent himself from work or duty without good reasons, the knowledge of the authority”. The above definitions are in agreement that truancy occurs when a student absents himself from school without due permission either from parents or from the related authorities.
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On its popular meaning, truancy can be seen as a: deliberate absence from school on the part of the pupil without the knowledge and consent of parents; absence of the pupil from the school for which no reasonable or acceptable excuse is given, this latter concept broadens the definition considerably and makes it synonymous with unexcused absence. Finally truancy can be defined as a delinquent act which occurs when “a child often stays away from the school without good reasons”. These definitions indicated certain elements of truancy that must be stressed and in order to have a proper understanding of the concept.
CAUSES OF TRUANCY
When young people start skipping school, they create major concern for college educators as well as for the community at large. There is no single specific known cause for truancy and the difference between cases is usually greater than the similarities, however, there are general observations that can be fairly stated about truancy and there are a number of causes why learners absent themselves from school and the following are some them.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance is an issue that deeply concerns students, parents, teachers and authorities not only in our country, but also in many other Latin American countries and continents. The complexity of the academic performance starts from its conceptualization. Sometimes it is known as school readiness, academic achievement and school performance, but generally the difference in concepts is only explained by semantics as they are used as synonyms. Conventionally, it has been agreed that academic performance should be used in university populations and school performance in regular and alternative basic education populations. We will point out just a few because there is a diversity of definitions. Several authors agree that academic performance is the result of learning, prompted by the teaching activity by the teacher and produced by the student. Academic performance is “the product given by the students and it is usually expressed through school grades”. Academic performance as a measure of the indicative and responsive abilities that express, in an estimated way, what a person has learned as a result of a process of education or training. Academic performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses. Academic performance also can be seen as the level of knowledge shown in an area or subject compared to the norm, and it is generally measured using the grade point average.
The purpose of the school or academic performance is to achieve an educational goal, learning. In this regard there are several components of the complex unit called performance. They are learning processes promoted by the school that involve the transformation of a given state, into a new state, and they are achieved with the integrity in a different unit with cognitive and structural elements. Performance varies according to circumstances, organic and environmental conditions that determine skills and experiences. The academic performance involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to a diverging performance. An unsatisfactory academic performance is the one that is below the expected performance. Sometimes it can be related to teaching methods
TRUANCY AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE
The college is responsible for providing instruction and informing parents when their child is absent. The state prescribes attendance, but enforcing attendance is the responsibility of parents and learners. Compulsory schooling can be equated with state truancy. Every truancy statute imposes criminal penalties on the parents or guardians who do not see that a learner for whom they are responsible receives the amount of education required by the state law for required age ranges. In early enforcement, if a parent or master did not teach a learner whatever the law required, the learner was taken away from the parents or guardians and apprenticed to someone who would carry out the law. Attendance officers are hired to enforce the law. Sometimes, they have been known as visiting lecturers, attendance lecturers and truant officers and more recently as learner advocates. In many states, laws have invested attendance officers with the powers of police officers, thereby enabling them to make arrests in enforcing attendance laws. If the learner continues to be absent, and then is subject to provisions of the children’s court, the child then is subject to provisions of the children’s court and code, which requires that the state provides assistance and takes whatever action in each incident.
CONCLUSION
Truancy is one of the major antisocial discipline problems among secondary school students in Nigeria. Various behaviour disorders like stealing, violence, drug abuse, examination malpractice, sexual abuse and truancy have so undermined effective teaching- learning processes that some teachers have become helpless and disorganized in their task of impacting knowledge to the learners. Herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory postulates that motivators’ factors account for student positive self concept and will reduce truant behaviour among students. Students that are motivated by their teachers, or parents developed strong passion for school and are likely to perform well in school. The reinforcement theory considers the use of positive or negative reinforces to motivate or create an environment of motivating in other to increase student interest in school and decrease truancy. The devastating effects of truancy in our secondary school cannot be underestimated because it is multidimensional and multifaceted, disciplinary problem in school. It been seen from the reviewed literature how family socio-economic background, peer group influence, student self concept, and teacher’s personality affect the academic performance.

Education is a necessary factor in the economic development as it is indubitably regarded as the bedrock of sustainable development in any nation. It equips the individual with the information necessary for high level of human functioning. Education is expected to train the mind of its recipient for effective performance. Adequate and proper acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills in school subjects and disciplines of study are invariably functions of quality education. To be regarded as educated person an individual needs to know how to read coherently and write legibly. Unfortunately, many students are not doing well in the school system especially because of their poor handwriting which has to do with the problem of expressing thought in written form.
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Handwriting is a language by hand, which is a useful reminder of its context and purpose. Handwriting is not an isolated activity; neither can it be seen solely as a motor activity. It is part of a language activity. There is handwriting that is clear and easy to read, and then there is handwriting that is hard to decipher. Bad handwriting sometimes includes sentences that are poorly punctuated, misuse of upper and lower case letters, words with incorrect spacing, and sentences that do not make sense. We write in order to remind ourselves of something we want to remember and to tell another person what we know as well as to let a person know what we want.
Good handwriting in all school subjects including mathematics is a skill that is highly valued in our society, even in this time of computer technology. In the past, handwriting was prized because it was a primary form of communication as people needed to get notes from one another that ought to be legible. The ability to communicate ones feelings and ideas effectively in written form is truly one of the most important factors in academic process.
HANDWRITING
Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface. The inability to produce clear and coherent handwriting is also known as dysgraphia. “Handwriting is a complex human activity that entails an intricate blend of cognitive, kinesthetic, and perceptual-motor components”.
However, Students can express their knowledge, thoughts and feelings through writing skills. Writing is an entry level cognitive skill and it has an important place in academic success. In addition to academic life, it is necessary to have effective writing skills for business and daily life as well. The main purpose of teaching writing skills is to provide students with legible, practical and accurate (in line with spelling and punctuation rules) handwriting skill in addition to acquisition of necessary skills to express their feelings, thoughts and impressions in written form.
TYPES OF HANDWRITING
There are many styles of handwriting, but they are categorized into three major types; cursive, print, and D'Nealian.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic performance is also the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
However, Students' academic performance is affected by several factors which include students' learning skills, parental background, peer influence, teachers' quality, learning infrastructure among others.
HANDWRITING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Handwriting is tied to academic achievement. Poor handwriting often frustrates teachers and results in lower grades. Everyone has their own handwriting style, some neat and others barely legible. Research has shown that different handwriting styles have effects on how a paper is graded and the mark a student receives. A teacher who is frustrated tends to be biased when marking essay scripts. Essays that are harder to decipher require more time and effort. Some essays may be misinterpreted entirely, simply because the teacher misunderstood a word or a sentence poorly written. Sometimes the teacher might even give up as he tries to understand what a student has written. Poor handwriting is considered to be a sign of a poor quality paper. Hence, it can be inferred that students achieving higher marks tend to write better handwriting style than those who perennially exhibit under achievement.
More so, the ability to communicate ones feelings and ideas effectively in written form is truly one of the most important factors in academic process. Poor handwriting can have negative impact on the success of the students in schools. Many students with poor handwriting are not able to write symbols well, and they cannot put their thought together coherently or write legibly in examination and as such it affects their overall performance in examination. A good handwriting skill is an essential part of teaching and learning, however, this has been ignored in many schools currently in Nigeria. In fact, the neglect by school authority to properly supervise students' handwriting is one of the contributory factors to students' poor academic performance in school.
A student who has difficulty with handwriting spends more time thinking about letter formation when he or she should be thinking of words or contents to be written. Handwriting difficulty becomes a serious problem for students as they will not be able to express themselves accurately and legibly in a written form. Poor handwriting can have a pervasive effect on school performance because handwriting is a basic tool used in taking notes, doing classroom work and assignment. For instance, lack of automatic recall may reduce the mental resources available for learning advanced computational algorithms in mathematics; labor handwriting creates a drain on mental resources needed for higher-level aspects of writing, such as attention to content, elaboration of details, and organization of ideas.
Poor handwriting can lead teachers to misunderstand what is written and prompt them to give low marks to students in examinations. Therefore, unless children learn to write legibly and at a reasonable speed, their educational achievements may be reduced and their self-esteem affected. Even in an era when elementary school students are adept at 'mousing' and teenagers are fiends at 'text-messaging' some experts, say that writing with a pen is still the backbone for teaching people how to read and learn facts. Handwriting difficulties can therefore weaken educational progress and interfere with learning. The evidence from various studies suggested that handwriting quality and quantity are strongly associated with examination achievement. Hence it is expedient on the parts of students to develop their handwriting skills at elementary school before proceeding to high school to ensure they get better marks.
CONCLUSION
There is a link between handwriting and brain development which shows that sequential hand movements used in handwriting activate the regions of the brain associated with thinking, short-term memory and language. Poor handwriting shows serious consequences on early literacy and academic performance. Children who experience difficulty mastering this handwriting skill may avoid writing and decide that they cannot write, leading to arrested writing development .Handwriting is critical to the production of creative and well-written text affecting both fluency and the quality of the composition. Illegible handwriting also has secondary effects on school achievement and self-esteem.
In conclusion, when students find it difficult to write legibly, it affects their overall achievement in school and hence weakens their educational progress as it often interferes with their learning.

Guidance and counseling have come to play a significant role in the field of education. Guidance in simple terms means to direct or provide assistance to someone in need of help. Counseling refers to professional services provided to an individual who is facing a problem and needs help to overcome the problem. Counseling is considered to be an integral part of guidance.
Guidance and counseling is oriented to helping students understand themselves, become self-sufficient in making realistic and positive selections and grow in human relationship and concerns. Guidance, hence, should prepare students for adult life as well as help them acquire appropriate attitudes and values that facilitate them to become productive and dynamic members of their communities.
Reading comprehension is a critical learning skill for all students as it is “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. Understanding words’ meaning, analyze the authors points of view and aim for writing and gaining knowledge of new words are all very important reading skills that support reading comprehension. Students need reading comprehension skills to successfully accomplish the educational goals and expectations, which are required in the classroom settings. For example, having the ability to understand textual information play a critical role in helping learners to quickly locate information that is pertinent to the text, exclude information that is irrelevant to the text, and identify the important information to focus on. Academic success also requires students to be able to understand, analyze, and apply information they gathered through their reading. The importance of being able to understand written materials increases significantly in all academic areas as students move from one grade to another.
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Not only is reading comprehension a valuable skill for learning in school, but in order to successfully interact in everyday life, individuals need reading skills to read and understand labels, directions, job application forms, and newspapers. Also, individuals need reading skills in order to be able to have and maintain a job and successfully engage in different daily activities, and live independently. The need for reading comprehension becomes very critical when thinking about the negative consequences of not being able to read in critical situations. Those who do not possess the ability to understand what they are reading are put at a disadvantage in every educational and personal life situation.
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING
Guidance and counseling as a process of helping an individual become fully aware of his/her self and the ways in which he is responding to the influences of his/her environment. Counseling is more involved emotionally in the affective realm personalized learning that is emotions and feelings, values, attitudes. Counseling is an interaction or relationship between two or few individuals, the client counselor relationship of trust.
Guidance counseling is also the process of helping individuals discover and develop their educational, vocational, and psychological potentialities and thereby to achieve an optimal level of personal happiness and social usefulness.
COUNSELING SERVICES
Counseling is a collaborative process that involves the development of a confidential professional relationship that focuses on personal problems. The objective of counseling is to help you clarify issues, gain insight into your feelings and thoughts and deal effectively with problems.
Counseling service includes the client to understand himself better. Counseling involves something more than a solution to an immediate problem. Counseling itself is supposed to maintain a personal stability interview of repeated challenges and repeated changes. Counseling is at the heart of the world structure called guidance. The counseling includes educational, vocational, personal/social aspects. The students’ problems in these areas can easily be solved if only the individual student can open up, ready to be helped and participate fully in solving the problem at hand.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN COUNSELING
Guidance and Counseling is an interactive relationship that takes place between the counselor and that client (in this case between you the counselor and the student). It becomes important that some issues related to codes of conduct in counseling relationships are highlighted here.
The following ethical codes of behavior are necessary for you to know, because they are going to help you to conduct counseling professionally. Adherence to these codes of conduct is of paramount importance and a foundation of successful practice:
Confidentiality: You are mandated to maintain all matters arising during any counseling of a client confidential. All advice given should not in any way be disclosed nor discussed with another person.
Tolerance: It is important that you practice tolerance with your client, and un- necessary duress on the client is totally unacceptable. Request for counseling is voluntary and therefore is improper to force the services on a client.
Objectivity: The need to be objective in a counseling relationship. You need to be impersonal in your dealing with the client, and be objective with your view, offer options that are clear and understood by the client, merits and demerits should be spelt out very clearly, so that the client is very clear of the kinds of decisions he/she is going to make. Counselor’s views should not be imposed on the client.
READING COMPREHENSION
Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are knowing meaning of words, ability to understand meaning of a word from discourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identify antecedents and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage about its contents, ability to identify the main thought of a passage, ability to answer questions answered in a passage, ability to recognize the literary devices or propositional structures used in a passage and determine its tone, to understand the situational mood.
Reading comprehension is one of the most important components of reading to master. It requires students to move beyond decoding individual vocabulary and statements to constructing a solid understanding of the entire passage. Comprehension is a complex process that requires an active interaction between the students’ background knowledge of the context, the purpose of the reading material, and the level of vocabulary and language used by the authors in order to gain meaning of a text. The process is complex because it requires students to engage in multiple cognitive activities, processes, and skills. These skills involve fluently decoding words, understanding the language syntax, making inferences, using background knowledge, and managing working memory as needed. Even a short passage of material requires the reader to have strategic control of when and how to use each of these skills.
Students need reading comprehension skills in order to be successful in both academic and personal life. In students’ academic lives, reading comprehension is the basis for understanding all the academic content. The importance of reading comprehension increases significantly in all academic subjects as students go ahead through grades. In particular, students need reading comprehension skills to successfully accomplish the educational expectations at school and in the classroom.
Also, being able to understand what they are reading allows students to quickly locate pertinent information, exclude non-relevant information to the present topic, and identify the important information to focus on. Academic success also requires students to be able to understand, analyze, and apply information they gathered through reading. Also, students need reading comprehension skill to be able to understand and perform their academic assignments. However, without having reading comprehension skills, students cannot accomplish all of that work.
Reading comprehension is also an essential skill that individuals need in order to be successful in their personal lives. For instance, to be successful, individuals need to understand the basic text that appears in utility bills, housing contracts, career applications, and newsletters. Also, individuals need reading comprehension skills in order to be able to have and maintain a job and successfully engage in different daily activities. The need for reading comprehension significantly increases when thinking about the negative consequences of not being able to read in critical situations. If not being able to successfully read prevents students from graduating from school, they cannot easily find a job and live independently. Even though they might find a job, the pay rate will be much less when compare to proficient readers.
COUNSELING SERVICES AND READING COMPREHENSION
Guidance and Counseling is defined as a planned and organized work aimed at assisting the trainee to understand himself/herself and his/her abilities and develop his/her potentialities in order to solve problems and achieve psychological, social, educational and professional compatibility, and also to achieve objectives within the framework of teachings.
Counseling on the other hand is the procedural aspect of guidance; it is therefore the interaction that comes as a result of the vocational relationship between a specialized counselor and his/her client where the counselor assists the client to understand himself/herself and his/her abilities and talents to achieve self and environmental compatibility in order to attain the appropriate degree of psychological health in light of the techniques and specialized skills of the guidance process.
One of the learning skills is the reading skill. Reading skills are very important in the success of education, as well as career student in the future. Quality education services would also reflected from Guidance and Counseling quality services anyway, because in the process of counseling students learn about themselves and their environment.
Reading comprehension is a critical learning skill for all students as it is “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. Understanding words’ meaning, analyze the authors points of view and aim for writing and gaining knowledge of new words are all very important reading skills that support reading comprehension.
More so, Academic success also requires students to be able to understand, analyze, and apply information they gathered through their reading. The importance of being able to understand written materials increases significantly in all academic areas as students move from one grade to another and all of these can be achieved through proper counseling.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, without Guidance and Counseling, the problems associated with reading comprehension and overall learning cannot be easily and understandably alleviated. This millennium is witnessing global rapid educational development with the aid of technology. Counseling has to be taken into serious consideration because its importance cannot be overlooked. Counseling centers should therefore be established in each school from basic to tertiary institutions.
The counselor should be perceived as one of the stakeholders of education that should be given the free hands to help achieve educational goals. He/she is not a magic winder that will change student's behaviour overnight or improve on their reading comprehension. The societal cultural setting should not militate against the services of guidance and counseling rather the two should complement each other. Therefore, more awareness about the counseling functions should be created.

The Science of Education is an area of expertise formed on the basis of two notions, “education” and “instruction”. Education is the activity that aids new generations obtain the necessary information, ability, attitude and understanding and develop their character while preparing them for communal life. Teaching, on the other hand, is the process in which the individual develops talents (obtained during the education phase) in proportion to their capacity. The most important factor in education and teaching activities is the teacher.
A teacher, in the most general terms, is a person working in educational institutes who enables students to reach cognitive, sensory and behavioral aim and gains within the range determined by the educational system. In our day a modern teacher surpasses this definition as well. The teacher has gone beyond just teaching class, giving lectures, making exams and giving grades; the teacher also takes on the roles of organizing, managing, counseling, observing and evaluating. The teacher also has an important role in influencing the society, creating a sound foundation towards the future of society and ensuring the continuation of such actions.
However, it is always important to have students’ well-being in mind when designing teaching in all subjects. It is also essential to weigh in the thoughts and opinions of teachers and their experience. Investigating teachers’ attitudes towards methods of teaching might help teachers understand which factors are considered relevant from a teachers’ point of view when designing students’ education.
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Attitude is the way people reason or acts and most of the times can either make or mar an individual performance while carrying out their tasks and responsibilities. It is often said that attitude may be positive or negative. Negative attitudes displayed in the school by teachers may result in negative performance while positive attitudes put forth by teachers in the school may result into a positive performance. The attitude of a teacher, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly affects students’ academic performance. Teachers’ attitudes highly influence students' interest in learning. Teachers’ professional attitude in the areas of communication, classroom management and pedagogy may be a strong factor that could influence students’ academic performance in schools. Positive professional attitudes of teachers with respects to their teaching job will go a long way in bringing about positive performance of the students while negative attitudes demonstrated by teachers in the discharge of their responsibilities may mar students’ interest in learning and general academic performance.
TEACHERS’ ATTITUDE
A teacher (also called a school-teacher or formally, an educator) is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue. Informally the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone.
Teachers’ attitude can be the willingness to share the responsibility involved in the classroom; a sincere sensitivity to the students' diversity, a motivation to provide meaningful learning experiences for all students; and an enthusiasm. It can also include a genuine caring and kindness of the teacher.
Some qualities of a good teacher include skills in communication, listening, collaboration, adaptability, empathy and patience. Other characteristics of effective teaching include an engaging classroom presence, value in real-world learning, exchange of best practices and a lifelong love of learning.
Teaching is an art and the quality of teaching depends on the love, dedication and devotion of the teacher towards the subject of the knowledge. The quality of any teaching programme cannot rise above the quality of its teachers.
Attitude is very important when you are a teacher. It affects your students in many ways and can shape their learning experience. As a teacher, you will sometimes experience stress that carries with you all the way home. Rather than dwelling on this, find positive ways to eliminate your stress.
Teachers' attitudes can help or hurt student motivation, achievement and well-being. Negative teachers’ attitudes can impair academic achievement and interest in learning and increase students' psychological disorders and physical symptoms of stress.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic achievement is important for the successful development of young people in society. Students who do well in school are better able to make the transition into adulthood and to achieve occupational and economic success.
TEACHERS’ ATTITUDE AND STUDENTS INTEREST IN LEARNING
The quality of output produced by any nation is dependent on the quality of its teachers. It is important to say that teachers play a very significant role in determining the quality of education that children receive. The teachers are great determinant in ensuring good academic performance. No wonder that it is often said that teacher is a very important resource in any educational system. Little wonder, of all the resources in the educational system, the most vital educational resources are the teacher. Teachers are highly essential for the successful operation of the educational system and serves as a key to the educational development.
Students’ academic performance is a major indices by which the effectiveness and success of any educational institution could be ascertained. Poor academic performance at schools is a product of the teacher factor in terms of teaching methods and attitudes, school factor, home factor, institutional factor and so on.
However, it should be noted that the students’ interest in learning and overall academic performance is dependent on a number of factors among which is the teachers’ professional attitudes. The professional attitudes of a teacher go a long way in bringing about effective performance of students.
The issue of teacher professionalism has to do with teachers adhering to the code of conducts guiding the teaching profession. Teacher professionalism affects the role of the teacher and his or her pedagogy, which in turn affects the students’ ability to learn effectively. Teachers with right professional attitudes are the hubs of any educational system because it is them the quality and effectiveness of all educational arrangement rests. Teachers are seen as essential pillars of education. No matter how grandiose a school system and its curricula may be, the implementation of its programmes will be fruitless unless competent and effective teachers handle them.
In a typical classroom setting, a professional teacher must demonstrate excellence attitudes in his teaching. It shows that teachers must put forth an attitude that will help to transform the learners' positively in the three domains of learning i.e. cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas. A professional teacher must demonstrate sound attitudes such as intelligence, neatness and desirable traits. Teacher professional development has influence on a lot of variables such as student motivation, teaching methodologies, communication skills, organization of content and planning of lessons, students’ participation during lessons, teacher confidence and knowledge of subject matter. All these put together can lead to students’ interest in learning.
CONCLUSION
The attitude of a teacher, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly affects students’ academic performance. Teachers’ attitudes highly influence students' interest in learning. Teachers’ professional attitude in the areas of communication, classroom management and pedagogy may be a strong factor that could influence students’ academic performance in schools. Positive professional attitudes of teachers with respects to their teaching job will go a long way in bringing about positive performance of the students while negative attitudes demonstrated by teachers in the discharge of their responsibilities may mar students’ academic performance.

Advancement of technology has given new dimensions to teaching and learning. It expands teaching and learning beyond classrooms and the conventional chalk and talk method. The use of audio-visual aids in teaching and learning has a long history. Audio-visual aids are materials with both audio and visual presentation to support teaching and learning particularly in improving comprehension and retention. Prior to the age of radio and television, early audio-visual aids came in the forms of drawings and pictures with oral narrations.
However, Education is necessary for everybody. Education is very vital, deprived of education no can lead a good life. Teaching and learning are the important element in education. The teacher use different approaches and substantial to teach their students and their active learning. With the passage of time, altered methods and techniques are entered in the field of education and teachers use different kinds of aids to make teaching and learning more effective.
Audio-Visual aids therefore, arouse the interest of learners and help the teachers to explain the concepts easily. Visual aids are those instructional aids which are used in the classroom to encourage students learning process. “Visual aids are those sensory objects or images which initiate or stimulate and support learning”. “Audio-Visual aids are any devices which can be used to make the learning experience more real, more accurate and more active”. Audio-Visual aids are also tools that help to make an issue or lesson clearer or easier to understand and know (pictures, models, charts, maps, videos, slides, real objects etc.).

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There are many Audio-visual aids available these days. We may classify these aids as follows; visual aids which use sense of vision are called Visual aids. For example :- models, actual objects, charts, pictures, maps, flannel board, flash cards, bulletin board, chalkboard, slides, overhead projector etc. Out of these, black boards and chalks are the commonest ones. Most significantly, it has converted a common phenomenon to integrate textbooks with audio visual aids as additional or supplementary resource for classroom course learning activities.
Good learning resources can help solve certain language barrier problem as they provide accurate visual image and make learning easier for the student. Another use of learning resources is to clarify the relationship between material objects and concepts to understand. Symbols, graphs, and diagrams can also show associations of location, time, size, value and frequency. By symbolizing the factors tangled, it is even possible visualize abstract relationship. Instructional aides have no value in the learning process if they cannot be seen or heard. Tapes of speeches and sounds should be confirmed for correct volume and quality in the actual environment in which they will be used. Audio-Visual aids must be visible to the whole class. All calligraphy and illustration must be large adequate to be seen easily by the students farthest from the aids'. Colors, when used, should provide clear contrast and easily be visible. The efficacy of aids can be enhanced by proper sequencing to build on former knowledge. Often, good institute and natural patterns of logic command the sequence.
AUDIO-VISUAL
Audio-visual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions.
Audio-Visual aids are those instructional aids which are used in the classroom to encourage teaching learning process. This refers to a learning aid that uses both vision and sound to transmit information and promote learning. They include video tapes, films and demonstrations.
“Any device which by sight and sound increases the individual s' practice outside that attained through reading is labeled as an audio visual aids”. Visual aids are those instructional devices which are used in the classroom to encourage learning and make it easier and motivating. The material like models, charts, film strip, projectors, radio, television, maps etc called instructional aids. Audio-Visual aids are effective tool that “invest the past with an air of actuality.” Visual aids distribute the learners with true knowledge, which detention their devotion and help in the understanding of the ancient marvels. They demand to the mind through the visual auditory senses. When we use visual aids as teaching aid, it is one of the aspects which root participation of students in the lesson because when students look at visual model or aid, it is measured as a kind of contribution
Audio-Visual aids are important in education system. Visual aids are those devices which are used in classrooms to encourage students learning process and make it easier and interesting. Visual aids are the best tool for making teaching effective and the best dissemination of knowledge. Also the uses of visual aids encourage the body movement and it may strengthen the control.
TYPES OF AUDIO-VISUALS
i. Audio Aids examples are Radio, Tape-recorder, Gramophone, Lingua-phone, Audio cassette player, Language laboratory.
ii. Visual Aids examples are Chart, Black and while board, Maps, Pictures, Models, Text-books, Slide projector, Transparency, Flash-cards, Print materials etc.
iii. Audiovisual Aids examples are LCD project, Film projector, TV, Computer, VCD player, Virtual Classroom, Multimedia etc.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
When a person imparts information or skills to another, it is common to describe the action as teaching. Imparting may mean to share experiences or communicating information, for instance, lecture. Teaching is regarded as both an art and science. As an art, it lays stress on the imaginative and artistic abilities of the teacher in creating a worthwhile situation in the classroom to enable students to learn. As a science, it sheds light on the logical, mechanical, or procedural steps to be followed to attain an effective achievement of goals. Teaching is intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature one which designed to further the education of the latter”. It is also a form interpersonal influence aimed at changing the behavior potential of another person”. Teaching is also an interactive process, primarily involving classroom talk which takes place between teacher and pupil and occurs during certain definable activities.
Learning is a complex process. It can be defined as a change in disposition; a relatively permanent change in behavior over time and this is brought about partly by knowledge. Learning can happen as an outcome of afresh attained skills, principles, perception, knowledge, facts, and new information at hand. Learning can be reinforced with different teaching/learning resources because they stimulate, motivate as well as focus learners’ attention for a while during the instructional process.
Learning is a key process & is necessary for all educational process. It pervades everything we do and think learning plays an important role in the languages we speak, our customs & beliefs. It involves ways of doing things in an individual attempt to overcome obstacles or to adjust to new situations. It is a progressive change in behavior as individual reacts to a situation in an effort to adopt his behavior effectively to the demands made upon him. Thus learning is change in behavior.
‘Learning is acquisition of knowledge, habits and attitudes. It involves new ways of doing things in order to overcome obstacles or to adjust to new situations. It enables the person to satisfy interests to attain goals.’ ‘Learning is also the acquisition of new behavior or the strengthening or weakening of old behavior as a result of experience.’ It can also be said to be any activity can be called learning as far as it develops the individual (in any aspect, good or bad) & makes his behavior & experiences different from what would otherwise have been.
AUDIO-VISUAL AND STUDENTS LEARNING AND RETENTION
Audio-Visual aids are devices present unit of knowledge through auditory of visual stimuli both with a view to aid learning. They concretize the information to be obtainable and help in making learning practice apple real, active and vital. They supplement the work of the teacher and help in the research of the text books. There is a saying that the foundation of all learning consists in representing clearly to the senses and sensible objects so they can be appreciated easily.
The impact of audio-visual resource can be so great in teaching thus making learning permanent “audiovisual methods seem to facilitate the acquisition, the retention and the recall of lessons learned, because, they seem to evoke the maximum response of the whole organism to the situations in which learning is done. And perceptual materials richly associate themselves with the unique experiential stressed that audio-visual materials are important in the teaching and learning processes because “having seen something, most people remember, for whatever that thing was, it conjures up an image at a mere mention and can be talked freely. Students forget because of lack of interest and opportunity to use the knowledge they have gained later on. Audio-visual resources can therefore contribute to the clarity of information presented by allowing students to visualize what is learned.
Audio-Visual aids give chance to speakers to make a more professional and consistent performance. The teaching career is full with limitless opportunities to enrich the academic survives of students, while some ideas and educational goals will be easy for students to hold, other will need you to think productively to ensure that important learning aims are met. By visual aids in teaching is one mode to enhance lesson plans and give students additional ways to process subject information.
It is only by the use of audio-visual resource that the learners can be offered the opportunity to learn by doing. This is because attention, motivation, concentration and retention of facts are enhanced through the use of audio-visual materials.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Audio-visual instructions do not only increase the motivation of the teachers and learners; they add clarity to the topic taught and make learning more interesting. Audio - visual materials make learning more permanent since they appeal to more than one sense. Learners retain most of what they hear, see and feel than what they merely hear. Audio-visual instructions encourage the use of audio-visual resources to make abstract ideas more concrete to the learners.
Therefore, the teacher’s duty is to make learning live not just something to remember but part of living experience. This can be done effectively by employing the use of audio — visual resources in teaching and learning as a means of impacting knowledge to learners. However, Educators have come to realize that the most effective teaching and learning take place when an individual is made to have direct experience with the subject under study, in other word, learners can learn best by doing. It is only by the use of audio-visual resource that the learners can be offered the opportunity to learn by doing. This is because attention, motivation, concentration and retention of facts are enhanced through the use of audio-visual materials.

Education has a pivotal role in nation as well as individual character building. It is a life line for any society and nation. Education of a child needs multidimensional efforts. Students, teachers, institute and parents all have their importance in their process of learning. Education is the basic mechanism for enhancing the population quality of a nation, and education is also the foundation for the formation of human labor-force quality. Education not only affects the achievement and happiness at the individual level, but also shapes the labor force quality and capacity of innovation to determine the potentiality of the development of a nation.
Family is the first educational environment, because it is in this family that the child first gets education and guidance. The main task of the family for the education of children is the foundation for the moral and religious life education, because the nature and character of children are mostly taken from their parents and other family members. "The involvement of parent education in schools is related to the academic success of students. The involvement of parents' academic socialization seems to be better at promoting the success of children's education to achieve socio-economic status in the future.
On the one hand, educational (in) equality may be rooted in institutional arrangement, i.e., its role of smoothing or even hampering the effect of family with different social economic status on educational opportunities. On the other hand, educational (in) equality is shaped by the different opportunities and capacities that families have in participation in education.
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Distance education, structured learning in which the student and instructor are separated by time and place, is currently the fastest growing form of domestic and international education. What was once considered a special form of education using nontraditional delivery systems is now becoming important in the education system.
Due to the rapid development of technology, courses using a variety of media are being delivered to students in various locations in an effort to serve the educational needs of growing populations. In many cases, developments in technology allow distance education programs to provide specialized courses to students in remote geographic areas with increasing interactivity between student and teacher. Although the ways in which distance education is implemented differ markedly from country to country, most distance learning programs rely on technologies that are either already in place or are being considered for their cost effectiveness. Such programs are particularly beneficial for the many people who are not financially, physically, or geographically able to obtain traditional education.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Your background is the kind of family you come from and the kind of education you have had. It can also refer to such things as your social and racial origins, your financial status, or the type of work experience that you have.
Highly educated parents are more likely to read to their children, enhancing early literacy skills and building foundational content knowledge from an early age. When interacting with their children, educated parents pose more questions, employ a more complex vocabulary, and give fewer orders.
DISTANCE EDUCATION
Distance Learning has gained a new breath with the turn of the 21st century with more and more courses delivered through distance education models worldwide. The impact of the new media, particularly digital connective technologies to deliver courses from a distance has triggered a new interest towards open and distance learning opportunities including the advent of Open Education Resources and Massive Online Open Courses that attempt to provide learning access to a wider audience.
Therefore, distance education, also called distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Today, it involves online education. A distance learning program can be completely distance learning, or a combination of distance learning and traditional classroom instruction.
Distance learning, also called e-learning, and online learning, form of education in which the main elements include physical separation of teachers and students during instruction and the use of various technologies to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication.
Distance learning is extremely important for those who cannot attend programs due to health complications, severe social anxiety, busy work schedules or parenting demands, or any other situations which make it necessary to be confined to the home. The goals of distance education, as an alternative to traditional education, have been to offer degree-granting programs, to battle illiteracy in developing countries, to provide training opportunities for economic growth, and to offer curriculum enrichment in nontraditional educational settings. A variety of technologies have been used as delivery systems to facilitate this learning at a distance.
FAMILY BACKGROUND AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
Family background of students determines how the child views himself and the way he views others. The society is a function of these two factors. In other words, the environment of the child at home determines his behavior as well as how he relates with others. However, the essential factor inherent in a home or family is the socio-economic, cultural and psychological factors. Culturally, the behavioral pattern among families differs from each other.
While in some there is a sound cordial understanding or relationship between parents and children.
Family background can be the reason why most students indulge distance education reason been that the parents are not financially stable or buoyant to sponsor the child. The child will be left with no other option than to apply for distance learning while working at the same time to enable him/her to pay the school fees.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, family background can make one not to attend the regular or traditional system of education but rather go for distance education. When parents cannot afford to pay the fees, the child may decide to look for something doing so as to sponsor him/herself in school.

Education is an instrument of development in all ramifications and it is believed that it is the future of any nation if the products can stand the test of time. Education is unavoidable natural processes which students are exposed to through various learning experiences, to accommodate themselves.
Education is not only developing, preserving and passing on of values, ethics or attitudes skills and knowledge; but also helps in imaginative reasoning and rational thinking. Thus, students as products of the educational system need to develop competencies required for creative life in order to contribute to national development. This can only be achieved if there are competent teachers in the system.
Teacher education is an important aspect of our educational system. It involves the preparation of teachers who are responsible for transforming our educational theories and policies into practice. The National Policy on Education highlights the purpose of teacher education to include producing highly efficient classroom teachers for all levels of our educational system. For teachers to teach competently and efficiently, they must be adequately exposed to both the academic (theoretical) and practical aspects of teaching.
Teaching today is an invaluable asset to the society. Teaching is a process through which a teacher applies his/her knowledge of the learners, subject matter and methodology to help an individual learn. Teaching is the use of educational knowledge, methods and space to educate whoever desires to be educated. It involves direct contact between the teacher and the learner. It is a complex variety of mutual activities undertaken by both of them (the teacher and the learner) in order to promote learning.
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The professional education of teachers cannot be validated without adequate preparation of prospective teachers for dynamic roles in today schools through practice. The practical phase of teacher preparation commonly referred to as teaching practice is a crucial aspect of teacher preparatory programme in teacher training institutions in general such as school of education in colleges of education and faculties of education in Nigerian Universities. Teaching practice is a period of time during which a student teacher is assigned to a specific institution; primary or secondary school for a supervised teaching as one of the requirements for graduation and effective teaching experience. However, teaching practice is a period that enables student teachers to learn about the actual work of the teacher in the classroom as well as out-of-class experience. Teaching practice provides the laboratory where a student practices what he/she had learnt concerning effective teaching. Student’s teaching practice is an important factor in preparing students for future teaching assignments. However, during this period, the student teacher may be face with some challenges which include classroom management, attitude of the supervisors towards the student teachers, curriculum development, instruction and environmental challenges.
TEACHING PRACTICE
Teaching practice exercise is an interesting programme or activity in which teacher education institutions send students-teachers to various secondary and primary schools under supervision every year.
Teaching practice can also be defined as the system by which teachers in training are subjected to a systematic expose to actual classroom situation. In the same vein, teaching practice is “the period of time during which a pre-service teacher is assigned to a public school for supervised teaching experience as a part of his college programme”.
Teaching practice is designed to provide opportunity and guidance in a school setting for the student-teacher in practice to develop professional competences, personal characteristics, understanding, knowledge and skills of a teacher. When the teachers who have been in the teaching field understand their responsibility to the trainees, the trainee-teachers will acquire appropriate skills based on their practical experiences.
Teaching practice is an important component of becoming a teacher. It grants student teachers experience in the actual teaching and learning environment. During teaching practice, a student teacher is given the opportunity to try the art of teaching before actually getting into the real world of the teaching profession. Student teachers also know the value of teaching practice, they perceive it as ‘the crux of their preparation for the teaching profession’ since it provides for the ‘real interface’ between student-hood and membership of the profession. As a result, teaching practice creates a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, excitement and apprehension in the student teachers as they commence their teaching practice
CHALLENGES FACED BY TEACHING PRACTICE STUDENT
A) CLASS SIZE ISSUES
One of the challenges faced by teaching practice student is class size issue. In as much as teaching practice is viral for students who want to become professional teachers, it is important to also consider the class size given to them to teach. There are class sizes that can be challenging for the teaching practice student looking at the fact that he/she hasn’t been a teacher before now. They however, need to encourage and motivated by all means.
B) POOR SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
Learning environment include the classroom surroundings, physical facilities in the classroom and teacher- student relationship. Physical environment comprises all those equipment, materials, furniture and learning space that make up the place where learners learn. When all these things are made available to the student teachers, they will be motivated to carry out the task assigned to them and the aim of teaching practice will be achieved. But when reverse is the case, it becomes challenging for teaching practice students.
C) LACK OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Instructional materials are basic channel of communication especially in teaching and learning. It is one of the best teaching method or technique to get students attention and also pass the message or the subject under discourse properly.
Instructional Materials, also known as Teaching/Learning Materials, are any collection of materials including animate and inanimate objects and human and non-human resources that a teacher may use in teaching and learning situations to help achieve desired learning objectives.
Instructional materials are very important for effective teaching practice. It will be easier for teaching practice students to teach and for their students to comprehend as well. When instructional materials are readily available, teaching and learning process becomes easy and interesting.
D) DILAPIDATED LABORATORY AND LIBRARY
Dilapidated laboratory and library is another challenge facing teaching practice students. With Dilapidated laboratory and library how do the prospective teachers’ gather materials for teaching and learning? The library needs to equip to help both teachers and students.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the overall goal of teacher education is to prepare teachers to take active part in teaching’ this mainly is done by equipping them with necessary knowledge, attitude, skills which will enable them to adapt to different situations in the profession. This will enable prospective teachers to contribute immensely to the teaching profession. Knowledge is of little value in itself unless the person who possesses it can make it serve him well by knowing how to apply it to solution of specific problems which confronts him or the society in which he lives.” Any knowledge acquired by individuals without practical is of little value.

Maternal mortality is becoming worrisome in Nigeria and other African countries. Maternal mortality not only does it affect the families in Nigeria, the society but also the Nigeria economy although just fewer than five undergraduate research projects have been able to ascertain the correlation between maternal mortality and the supply of labour force to the Nigeria economy.
Maternal health care
This is the overall wellbeing of women at the stage of pregnancy and children below age 5. Maternal healthcare is comprehensive as it includes educational, social, nutritional services as well as medical care during and posts pregnancy. As has been observed, some reasons have been attributed to why many pregnant and nursing mothers chose not to make use of appropriate antenatal and postnatal cares. Some of these reasons can be cultural, hereditarily related to the social, economic and political developments. This implies that both the natural environment-biological-and the social environment perform powerful and critical functions in healthcare utilization behaviour of women across most African societies. Cultural factors, therefore, are a major determining factor influencing health care utilization behaviour of pregnant women in Nigeria.
Maternal mortality
Maternal mortality refers to any loss of a woman’s life resulting from pregnancy complication or death within 42 days after childbirth, notwithstanding the period or site of the pregnancy, emanating from issues that are linked or escalated by the management of the pregnancy but not from accident or incidental factors. There are other known factors aside medical conditions responsible for maternal mortality in Nigeria-these factors include but are not limited to social, economic and cultural factors, which have a direct influence on maternal mortality. Interestingly, maternal mortality in most of the rural areas in Nigeria is caused by other precipitating factors that are non-medical. These factors range from poverty, low level of education or absence of it, prohibited food, low purchasing power and certain harmful cultural beliefs and practices; more so, with the introduction of user charges in state and federal owned hospitals, high percentage of women, especially in the rural areas, now patronize faith clinics and traditional practitioners as alternative health care.
Causes of maternal mortality
Females in the age group of 15-19 years are the ones at risk, thus reinforcing the fact that most of the young females are at increased risk of death due to pregnancy and its related causes and complications. Each year approximately twenty million females who survive childbirth, suffer from multiple chronic ailments resulting in maternal morbidities. According to the WHO fact sheet, in the year 2010, 287, 000 women died while they were pregnant or during the process of childbirth. Most of these deaths were reported in low resource settings and they could have been prevented if had a chance to be supported by good infrastructure and health services. Nearly 50% of maternal mortality is reported in developing countries showing a clear gap between the privileged and unprivileged. One such country struggling to reduce maternal mortality ratio to less than 70/100,000 women in Nigeria, a large country in Western Africa. The country faces various challenges; due to its large population of over 160 million, geography, high rate of population growth, cultural and religious diversity and continuous threats of terrorism. Various predisposing factors have been identified, that contribute to high maternal mortality, one of them being early marriages. Although the legal age for marriage in Nigeria is 18 years, yet in northwestern parts of Nigeria with the Muslim majority, girls are married at an early age, soon after they reach puberty due to economic, social or religious constraints.
Improvement in maternal health care and maternal mortality
Lack of access to health facilities is a major cause of maternal mortality, but infrastructural constraints result in very few health facilities in rural areas. In Nigeria less 34 per cent of women giving birth have a skilled attendant present, which is a major cause of maternal mortality. In response, most African governments are working to mobilize health personnel to rural areas to provide healthcare. Take for instance Tunisia’s 80 per cent reduction in maternal deaths was due largely to the country’s emphasis on skilled attendance at delivery. Community Health Workers (CHWs) are instrumental in providing healthcare to underserved populations and can be vital in reducing maternal mortality.

Anxiety is a psychological and physical response to treat a self-concept characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension. Anxious students have experience of cognitive deficits like misapprehension of information or blocking of memory and recall. Study anxiety is not only due to the lack of study motivation or to insufficient skills, but is also due to misperception about courses and negative experiences in previous study classes. High level anxiety is more closely associated with lowered performance in low-ability students than in high-ability counterparts. At the global level, anxiety is viewed as a permanent trait, as some people are predisposed to be anxious.
However, anxiety disorders keep rising among students as the day goes by. Anxiety has a way of interrupting with students’ performance. Individuals in high anxiety levels tend to experience poor academic performance throughout their years in the school. Anxiety has demonstrated to have detrimental effect both on the health and academic performance of students at all levels.
High level of anxiety also interferes with concentration and memory, which are critical for academic success. However, most of students would lack the concentration of study because of exam anxiety, social anxiety, mathematic anxiety, sourcing for undergraduate research project topics, and many anxiety sources.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
Parental involvement is defined as those behaviors shown by the parents, both in home and school settings, meant to support the development of their children’s social/emotional skills and facilitate their educational success.
The parent–child relationship has been identified as a significant factor accounting for variation in children’s normal and abnormal development. Although often studied in relation to children’s psychological development, considerably, parents also play a critical role in the academic development of their children. Parental involvement in children’s learning has been consistently linked to children’s school outcomes as well as influences the effectiveness of their involvement.
Parental supportive involvement regarding academic issues enhances children’s academic achievement; also there involvement helps in controlling anxiety among students, whereas parental controlling interactions are associated with lower achievement and high level of anxiety. Moreover, child characteristics influence whether parents engage in more supportive or more controlling involvement about school-related issues.
Although some child characteristics has been examined in relation to these dimensions of parental involvement in the lives of their children. Supportive parental involvement for academic learning refers to parenting behaviors that lead children to experience a sense of initiative and confidence in relation to their learning. By involving themselves in a supportive and positive manner, parents demonstrate interest, attention, praise, and reinforcement related to several aspects of learning, which in turn lead to enhanced academic achievement and overall school adjustment.
ANXIETY
Anxiety is a mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities. Examples of anxiety disorders include panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Symptoms include stress that's out of proportion to the impact of the event, inability to set aside a worry and restlessness.
Treatment includes counseling or medication, including antidepressants.
Anxiety is also an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry.
Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty that typically appears when an individual perceives an event as being a threat to the ego or self esteem. Anxiety is defined as an emotional state consisting of feeling, tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system, these are differentiated as state and trait anxiety. Individuals with high levels of anxiety generally hold heightened levels of trait anxiety, but in evaluative situations, the state anxiety also elevates.
CAUSES OF ANXIETY
Although early exposure to stress and the experience of trauma are important risk factors for anxiety disorders, evidence also highlights biological causes, such as issues with the regulation of neurotransmitters and heritable genetic causes. Below are some causes of anxiety.
i. Stress – and particularly continued exposure to stress has been linked to anxiety, as well as having a negative impact on the body’s immune, cardiovascular, neuro-endocrine and central nervous systems.
ii. Physical health problems -can also cause or perpetuate anxiety disorders. In patients with a malignant disease, for example, a response of anxiety is understandable; however, in some patients, anxiety may increase to a level that is disproportionately high and that, if it does not improve, can lead to functional impairments.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ANXIETY LEVEL AMONG STUDENTS
Academic anxiety is a multidimensional construct that has been defined as the set of phenomenological, physiological and behavioral responses that accompany concern about possible negative consequences or failure on an exam or similar evaluative situation. Academic anxiety consists of three interwoven component parts, which manifest in cognitive, emotional and psychological symptoms including preoccupation during test-taking moments with relevant thoughts about the test, fear, apprehension, irrational excitement and tension about the test. Individual academic performance is compared to a standard to determine a person’s level of accomplishment or success. Parenting behavior is a style of child upbringing (refers to privilege or responsibility of mother and father) prepares the child for society and culture. The variety of parent–child relationships is as large as that in any other type of interpersonal situation. Some children seem to have harmonious relationships with their parents, without experiencing any major disagreements or blow-ups. Others bicker with their parents over all issues, great and small. Reciprocal influence between children and parents can be seen in the mode of discipline within a home, established in large part by parents, which influences the behavior of the children. Young children respond to parental interpretations of the day-to-day events related to school. It is important to note that parents who have children in school and especially those about to or writing exams, generally experience intense levels of anxiety during the preparation time of the examination. But with the involvement of the parents, the level of anxiety can be controlled.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that anxiety is manifest by disturbances of mood, thinking, behavior, and physiological activity and accompanying disturbances of sleep, concentration, social and/or occupational functioning. Also, it is associated with restlessness, feeling keyed up or on edge, being easily fatigued, difficulty in concentrating or mind going blank, irritability, muscle tension, and irritability. And all of these can make one lose his/her self confidence in anything which may or may not turn out excellently well. Parental influence is highly important for children’s educational success. Parents are frequently cited as the most significant and influential agents of socialization throughout childhood. Parenting is a complex activity that includes much specific behaviour that work individually to influence child outcome. Parents are probably the most significant and major influence on adolescents’ development, particularly during early adolescence.

Family planning is the planning of when to have and use birth techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexual education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted diseases, pre-conception counseling, management and infertility management. However, family planning is usually used as a synonym for the use of birth control. It is most adopted by couples who wish to limit the number of children they want to have and control the timing of pregnancy, also known as spacing of children. Family planning may encompass sterilization, as well as pregnancy termination. It also includes raising a child with methods that require significant amount of resources namely: time, social, financial and environmental. Family planning measures are designed to regulate the number and spacing of children within a family, largely to curb population growth and ensure each family has access to limited resources. Family planning is always recommended for people in rural area so as to maintain a health standard of living. Recently most of the undergraduate projects for health and economics related subjects have been centered on family planning.
While socioeconomic factors are the social and economic experiences and realities that help mold one's personality, attitudes, and lifestyle. The factors can also define regions and neighborhoods.
Socio economic factors however, play most crucial role in not only deciding the choice of family planning method to be used but also whether to use any method at all or not. Socio economic factors that influence utilization of family planning methods are overpopulation, poverty, corruption, education, religion, caste related violence, cost, partner involvement etc.
However, there are some contraceptive methods of family planning that are expensive, and some couples cannot afford to use or purchase them due to their financial situations in the society. For instance, people in rural areas cannot afford to use the expensive contraceptive methods of family planning such as vasectomy, Intra-uterine devices (IUD) (which are small, flexible, plastic frame inserted in the vagina of women) and female sterilization method.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC
Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local or regional economy, or the global economy. Societies are divided into three groups: social, cultural and economic. It also refers to the ways that social and economic factors influence the environment.
Social economics examines the interaction of economic valuations with economic activity and economic institutions and measures their outcome against basic ethical values. Socio-economic development embraces changes taking place in the social sphere, mostly of an economic nature.
FAMILY PLANNING
Family planning services are "the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births. It is achieved through use of contraceptive methods and the treatment of involuntary infertility.
Family planning helps protect women from any health risks that may occur before, during or after childbirth. These include high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, infections, miscarriage and stillbirth.
It is worthy of note that Family planning can significantly reduce the risk of maternal, newborn, infant, and child illness and death by preventing a high-risk pregnancy in women with certain health conditions or characteristics, or by preventing an unplanned pregnancy. Women typically welcome pregnancy and childbirth, especially when planned.
THE NEED FOR FAMILY PLANNING
i. Family planning saves the lives of women, newborns, children, and teenage girls: Family planning can significantly reduce the risk of maternal, newborn, infant, and child illness and death by preventing a high-risk pregnancy in women with certain health conditions or characteristics, or by preventing an unplanned pregnancy. Women typically welcome pregnancy and childbirth, especially when planned. However, many pregnancies are unintended or mistimed, and the risk of illness and death associated with these events can be very high.
ii. Family planning lowers the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions: The primary reason for abortion is to end an unplanned pregnancy. To reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thus the number of abortions, women must have access to contraceptive information and services where women received high-quality contraceptive services, the number of abortions decreased.
iii. Family planning benefits families and communities: When couples have only the number of children they want, there are fewer children needing educational and other community services. Healthy children are better able to learn, which puts less strain on teachers and schools. Personal savings and investments increase when working parents have fewer dependents to support. Family planning results in smaller, healthier families that are better able to care for themselves.
The health, education, and public services of communities are less burdened. There are fewer children to immunize and treat. This means health resources can be utilized more efficiently, with less overcrowding in hospitals and at clinics. With fewer children to educate, schools will be less crowded, and teachers will be able to pay more attention to every child. There will be lower demands on clean water, sanitation, transportation, and other public services. By embracing family planning programs, communities strengthen their ability to provide public services and improve the lives of their families.
iv. Family planning benefits nations by enabling increased public spending per person in all sectors: Governments around the world are focused on combating poverty and achieving a range of health and development goals, such as those outlined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Family planning contributes to achieving nearly all of these goals. Reducing the number of unplanned births and having smaller families helps to reduce the level of need for public-sector spending in health, water, sanitation, education, and other social services. Preventing unplanned pregnancy among HIV infected women is the most cost-effective way of preventing maternal to child transmission of HIV. Family planning helps nations to reach social and economic goals, beginning at the community level. Family planning is an important and cost-effective investment for governments and contributes to multiple economic and health priorities, including reducing poverty.
v. Family planning reduces the burden on natural resources and the environment: Family planning not only has an impact on the health and well-being of families but also contributes to better management and conservation of natural resources and eases population pressure on local ecosystems. The population level in a country has a profound impact on the demands placed on limited natural resources. Rapidly growing populations increase demand for scarce natural resources and put pressure on water, trees, farmland, wildlife, and ecosystems. Smaller families help to protect natural resources and keep them from being overused and destroyed.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND THE NEED FOR FAMILY PLANNING
Family planning is an effective way of controlling fertility. Low fertility leads to a slower population growth. It has long been acknowledged as an effective public health intervention, highly cost-effective in decreasing maternal and child health burden of disease. Globally, the use of modern contraceptive methods and the desire for smaller families has been increasing. However, large disparities between rich and poor still exist in access to services, resulting in disproportionately high unmet need for the poor. The causes of unmet need are mainly related to poor access to services, lack of correct information, social opposition to use, and concerns (whether warranted or not) about side effects.
Socio economic factors however, play most crucial role in not only deciding the choice of family planning method to be used but also whether to use any method at all or not. Socio economic factors that influence utilization of family planning methods are overpopulation, poverty, corruption, education, religion, caste related violence, cost, partner involvement etc.
CONCLUSION
Family planning is an effective public health intervention with multiple individual and societal benefits. It lowers fertility rates therefore paying a demographic dividend. It helps couples achieve their desired family size and can help lower maternal and child mortality critical Millennium Development Goals. Family planning does not limit rights; it gives people choices by providing them the tools to control the timing and number of children to have. Meeting the fertility preferences of individual families is undoubtedly a desirable objective on reproductive rights grounds and in many countries would at the same time address the objective to reduce population growth rates. The need for family planning is clear. However, Socioeconomic factors like education, socioeconomic class, age, number of living children were significantly affect uses of contraceptive. So level of education is influencing factor for adaptation of contraception.
The direct impact of making family planning available includes decreasing both maternal and child mortality, decreasing unsafe abortion, reducing population growth, and meeting the desires of men and women worldwide for smaller families with larger spacing between their children. It is therefore imperative to continue to expand the provision of family planning services.

Anxiety disorders keep rising among students as the day goes by. Anxiety has a way of interrupting with students’ performance especially when it comes to research project writing. Individuals in high anxiety levels tend to experience poor academic performance throughout their years in the university. Anxiety has demonstrated to have detrimental effect both on the health and academic performance of students.
For a teacher, being able to interact with the student and display positive behavior such as asking questions, understanding their thoughts, showing interest and appreciation increases the students’ motivation and success. While working towards providing students at a certain development level information, experience and behavior on a certain topic, teachers become role models for students by way of their own behavior and attitude. Positive attitudes lead to success while negative attitudes lead to failure and as a result success can lead to positive ego attitudes while failure leads to negative ego attitudes. For example, if the teacher engages in belittling comments towards a student due to his/her failure, the negative effects of this will be inevitable.
See more Undergraduate research project topics and materials on anxiety
Teaching is much more than saying and explaining. One of the most basic principles of teaching abilities is supporting of the student by the teacher and for the teacher to put for their positive expectations in order to motivate the student to learn. While the positive behavior of the teacher allows him/her to create a positive relationship with students, it also allows for the teacher to delve on the positive behavior of students as opposed to the negative, taking on a reinforcing role as well.
High level of anxiety also interferes with concentration and memory, which are critical for academic success. However, most of students would lack the concentration of study because of exam anxiety, social anxiety, mathematic anxiety, and many anxiety sources. Feeling discomfort and anxious in the classroom does not enhance learning of any kind. The anxiety’s psychological symptoms among students include feeling nervous before a study class, panicking, going blank during a test, feeling helpless while doing assignments, or lack of interest of subjects difficult whereas the physiological symptoms include sweaty palms, racing heartbeat, or an upset stomach.
Anxiety is a psychological and physical response to treat a self-concept characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension. Anxious students have experience of cognitive deficits like misapprehension of information or blocking of memory and recall. Study anxiety is not only due to the lack of study motivation or to insufficient skills, but is also due to misperception about courses and negative experiences in previous study classes. High level anxiety is more closely associated with lowered performance in low-ability students than in high-ability counterparts. At the global level, anxiety is viewed as a permanent trait, as some people are predisposed to be anxious.
TEACHERS ATTITUDE
Attitude is defined as a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings. Attitude can also be seen as the tendency to react in a certain way towards a designed class of stimuli. Attitude has also been defined as a mental and neutral state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related. People’s attitudes towards their profession have an effect on their performance.
Attitude is very important when you are a teacher. It affects your students in many ways and can shape their learning experience. As a teacher, you will sometimes experience stress that carries with you all the way home. Rather than dwelling on this, find positive ways to eliminate your stress.
ANXIETY
Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty that typically appears when an individual perceives an event as being a threat to the ego or self esteem. Anxiety is defined as an emotional state consisting of feeling, tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system, these are differentiated as state and trait anxiety. Individuals with high levels of anxiety generally hold heightened levels of trait anxiety, but in evaluative situations, the state anxiety also elevates.
Anxiety is also an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry.
Anxiety is a mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities. Examples of anxiety disorders include panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Symptoms include stress that's out of proportion to the impact of the event, inability to set aside a worry and restlessness.
Treatment includes counseling or medication, including antidepressants.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic performance of students is a key feature in education. It is considered to be the centre around which the whole education system revolves. Academic performance of students determines the success or failure of any academic institution. Academic performance of students has a direct impact on the socio-economic development of a country. Similarly, students’ academic performance serves as bedrock for knowledge acquisition and the development of skills. Additionally, the top most priority of all educators is academic performance of students. Academic performance is the knowledge gained which is assessed by marks by a teacher and/or educational goals set by students and teachers to be achieved over a specific period of time. These goals are however, measured by using continuous assessment or examinations results.
EFFECT OF TEACHERS ATTITUDE ON ANXIETY LEVEL OF STUDENT
Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing. It is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, fatigue and problems in concentration. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life, whether it is about preparing for a job interview, meeting a partner’s family for the first time, or the prospect of parenthood. While we associate anxiety with alterations to our mental state, experienced as worry or apprehension perhaps, and physical symptoms such as raised heart rate and adrenaline, we also understand that it is likely to affect us only temporarily until the source of our anxiety has passed or we have learnt to cope with it. Anxiety is therefore one of a range of emotions that serves the positive function of alerting us to things we might need to worry about: things that are potentially harmful. More importantly, these emotions help us to evaluate potential threats and respond to them in an appropriate way, perhaps by quickening our reflexes or focusing our attention.
A teacher who realizes that the nature of knowledge and abilities directly affects his/her students and surroundings takes responsibility for his/her own knowledge and abilities, creates positive relationships with his/her students and can relay these to students in the most efficient manner. In this whole process, the effect of the teacher in the personality development and success of students is a fact that cannot be overlooked. The teacher, through either positive or negative attitude in communication with students and in how he/she reflects this, directs the shape of their lives, has a positive or negative effect on the attitude shown toward themselves or the public in general, affecting development of the ability to communicate, research and be creative. The behavior and approach of the teacher is directly accepted and copied by students, which puts great responsibilities on the teachers.
Therefore, when students have a feel of anxiety especially when writing research project, they tend to lose their confidence because of fear of what and how the project will turn out and most of this cases are seen where undergraduate students have strict and unsupportive project supervisor. So the fear of not wanting to disappoint their supervisors or the fear of whether they can write an excellent project that will be accepted without much criticism bothers them which eventually turn into anxiety. And when students begin to feel this way, there is every tendency that they lose their self confidence which may lead to poor research project.
CONCLUSION
As expected, the anxiety in the educational environment is generated by the teachers’ attitude. The perceived threatening attitudes are generating frustration and very high anxiety. The educational anxiety is a result of the cognitive capacity and the requirements, all this strongly marked by the teachers attitude. This attitude gives the student the feeling of being backward and ineffective which amplifies the anxiety and also creates the premises for depression.
Fear is probably the most basic of all emotions. Not only do all humans experience it, but fear responses have been found in all species even animals right down to the sea slug. Experiences of fear vary tremendously in their severity, from mild anxiety to extreme terror and panic. The experience of fear can also vary in duration from a brief, almost fleeting flash, to a constant, all day experience. While anxiety and panic, by their nature, are unpleasant, they are not in the least bit dangerous.
Anxiety is manifest by disturbances of mood, thinking, behavior, and physiological activity and accompanying disturbances of sleep, concentration, social and/or occupational functioning. Also, it is associated with restlessness, feeling keyed up or on edge, being easily fatigued, difficulty in concentrating or mind going blank, irritability, muscle tension, and irritability. And all of these can make one lose his/her self confidence in anything which may or may not turn out excellently well.
It can be concluded that Childs’ anxiety disorders may affect success at school and they are very often correlated with teachers and parents attitudes.

One of the best remedies for any health related issue could be exercise. Most of the people that exercise regularly tend to be fit and have high level of immunity. Undergraduate research projects have shown that there is a correlation between exercise and health seeking behaviour among the older adults.
EXERCISE
It is often assumed that exercise involves only movement represented by activities such as walking, running, jumping, and swimming. Indeed, by their imprecise titles, respected texts either wittingly or unwittingly promulgate this assumption. Exercise can also involve movement assisted by machines or other devices such as those found in cycling, wheelchair racing, kayaking, rowing, skiing, and skating. During these activities, energy is expended up to and beyond 120 kJ min71 (2 kW), equivalent to an oxygen uptake of 6 litres min71 , compared with resting rates of approximately 5 kJ min71 (83 W), equivalent to an oxygen uptake of 0.25 litres min. However, there are activities that also require substantial expenditures of energy but in which little or no movement occurs. The Crucifix and other examples of quasi-static balance and suspension in gymnastics are illustrations. In competition, movement is actually deprecated and marks are awarded for stillness. In both codes of rugby, it is possible for 16 or 12 players to exert maximum or near-maximum effort such as in a scrum, yet no movement occurs. The same can be seen in tug-of war. Other tasks such as rifle and pistol shooting and archery also illustrate activities in which lack of movement is a principal aim of the participants
NEED OF EXERCISE
Everybody knows that the need of exercise in our daily lives, but we may not know why or what exercise can do for us. Exercise means, the daily practice of doing some physical work. Exercise is the key to good health and fresh mind. The daily practice of some physical work does not mean to take stress on body, but it is actually the stress relieving activity. A good health is obligatory for doing a good work. A famous quote is there is awesome evidence that people who lead active lifestyles are less likely to suffer from illness and more likely to live longer. Exercise not only makes you physically fitter but it also improves your mental health and general sense of well-being. Getting fit is not just about running on a treadmill for hours in your local gym, it can be a dance class or a new hobby like fencing or mountain biking. It could be a group or team activity like football or a karate class. Whatever form of exercise you choose, you’ll practically certainly meet new people and may make new friendships. These recommendations can be achieved through 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (five times a week) or 20-60 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise (three times a week) or a combination of both types. One continuous session combined with multiple shorter sessions (of at least 10 minutes) is also acceptable
BENEFITS OF DAILY EXERCISE
Each one of us has a physical body made of muscles, blood, bones and various other living tissue. When any of these are injured or not working properly then we get ill. Nobody likes to be ill. So, it is important that we keep our body healthy and fit. Exercising the body is one way of keeping it healthy. If we do not exercise then our muscles become weaker and we are less able to do things properly. Also the bones can become weaker and thus break easily. It is performed for various reasons, including increasing growth and development, preventing aging, strengthening muscles and the cardiovascular system, honing athletic skills, weight loss or maintenance, and merely enjoyment. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system and helps prevent "diseases of affluence" such as cardiovascular, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. It may also help prevent stress and depression, increase quality of sleep and act as a non-pharmaceutical sleep aid to treat diseases such as insomnia, help promote or maintain positive self-esteem, improve mental health, maintain steady digestion and treat constipation and gas, regulate fertility health, and augment an individual's sex appeal or body image, which has been found to be linked with higher levels of self-esteem. Childhood obesity is a growing global concern, and physical exercise may help decrease some of the effects of childhood and adult obesity. Some care providers call exercise the "miracle" or "wonder" drug—alluding to the wide variety of benefits that it can provide for many individuals
HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOUR
Health seeking behaviour of the aged is determined by their attitude and that the elderly sometimes focuses exclusively on him or herself and try to use power, pressure, influence or control in ways destructive to their relationship with their caregivers. To some extent, the elderly person‘s behaviour can be self-centred and not noticing other people feelings and not realizing when they are upset or when something you do upsets them. Occasionally, the elderly develop abusive behaviour.
In this regard, they complain bitterly about unavoidable situations, finding faults with almost everything, blaming others for problems caused by themselves, refusing advice that would ease care tasks because they think that they know better and their ideas should be carried, prolonging conversations through repetition and demanding help beyond the caregiver‘s capacity. This invariably may induce stress. When seeking health care, the aged are liable to face situation such as mistreatment which has been identified in facilities for continuing care (such as nursing homes, residential care, hospitals and day care facilities) in almost every country where such institutions exist. Various people may be responsible for the abuse: a paid member of the staff, another resident, a voluntary visitor, or relatives or friends. An abusive or neglectful relationship between the older person and their caregiver at home may not necessarily end once the older person has entered institutional care; the abuse may sometimes continue in a new setting. A distinction must be made between individual acts of abuse or neglect in institutional settings and institutionalized abuse where the prevailing regime of the institution itself is abusive or negligent. In practice, though, it is often difficult to say whether the reasons for abuse or neglect found in an institutional setting have been caused by individual acts or through institutional failings.
The spectrum of abuse and neglect within institutions spans a considerable range, and may be related to any of the following: The provision of care for example, resistance to changes in geriatric medicine, erosion of individuality in the care, inadequate nutrition and deficient nursing care (such as lack of attention to pressure sores). Problems with staffing for example, work related stress and staff burnout, poor physical working conditions, insufficient training and Psychological problems among staff. Difficulties in staff–resident interactions for example, poor communication, aggressiveness on the part of residents and cultural differences, Environment for example, a lack of basic privacy, dilapidated facilities, the use of restraints, inadequate sensory stimulation, and a proneness to accidents within the institution.
EXERCISE AND HEALTH SEEKING BEHAVIOUR
Daily exercise is very important for the older adults; there are so many health benefits of exercising daily. The older adults at some point develops health related problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, increase in body fat as a result of poor body system regulation thereby developing health-seeking behaviour. Daily exercise although the exercise should be mild has a way of improving the functioning of the body system. Health related issues such as sugar level, body fat, and blood pressure tend to be control with mild exercise.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, health seeking behavior described as the action or inaction of individual which responding to the stimuli to achieve optimum well-ness. It has clearly described the differences of this concept with another concept that has a close definition such as help seeking behavior, and health information seeking behavior. It will help nurse and other health care profession to identify cause of this concept and the consequences of it. Similarly this will help health profession learn how people engage with health care systems in their respective socio-cultural, economic and demographic circumstances. Moreover, future research can use the attributes of this concepts analysis as the validation of their research instruments

In every institution there is always that variation in students academic performance; this difference is seen in their semester examination, undergraduate projects, seminar presentation skills and other departmental activities. Some of these students study a lot while other hardly study; so in this article we will examine consistent study and high IQ effectiveness in improving students academic performance.
CONSISTENT STUDY
Consistent study simply means studying always; the pattern or study time depends entirely on the student. Some student understands better during the day while some understand more at night when everywhere is calm. Irrespective of the study time, every student must endeavour to add consistency to their study. This will help them go a long way in achieving their academic performance.
INTELLIGENT QUOTIENT (IQ)
Intelligence is the ability to think rationally, learn effectively, understand complex ideas, and adapt to the environment. Accordingly, intelligence is best seen as a general ability that can influence performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks. IQ (the intelligence quotient) is the quantification of an individual’s intelligence relative to peers of a similar age. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits, and an individual’s score on a modern IQ test is a good predictor of many life outcomes, including educational and career success, health, longevity, and even happiness. Like humans, several species of animals express a “general cognitive ability” that influences performance on broad and diverse cognitive tasks, and moreover, animals exhibit a wide range of individual variations in this ability.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Student’s academic performance and graduation rates have been the area of interest for higher education institutions. Investigation of factors related to the academic performance of university students become a topic of growing interest in higher educational circle. Many recent studies were carried out to explore factors that affecting university student’s academic performance. Student performance is affected by different factors such as learning abilities, gender and race. Family income level, attending full time, receiving grant aid and completing advanced level classes in high school having statistically significant effects on college persistence among first generation college students.
Academic instruction is arguably the primary business of education. To this end, schools are expected to influence students’ learning, socialisation, and even vocational preparedness. Despite the attention paid to a broad definition of educational outcomes, however, academic performance remains central. Students’ academic performance is a term that appears frequently married in higher education discourse. Academic performance is a multidimensional construct composed of the skills, attitudes, and behaviors of a learner that contribute to academic success in the classroom. It is a satisfactory and superior level of performance of students as they progress through and complete their school experience. The implication of this definition is underscored by research which repeatedly demonstrates that the vast majority of students who withdraw from school do so for no reason other than poor academic performance. Although the importance of academic achievement is rarely questioned, reaching unanimity regarding its measurement has been elusive. The measurement of students’ academic performance continues to be a controversial topic among policymakers, measurement experts, and educators. Researchers have used a variety of ways to measure academic achievement such as report card grades, grade point averages, standardized test scores, teacher ratings, other cognitive test scores, grade retention, and dropout rates. However, for the purposes of this study, student academic performance is defined by the degree to which a student is able to accomplish a given class work in the school setting.
CONSISTENT STUDY VS HIGH IQ WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE FOR STUDENTS PERFORMANCE
Like the saying goes, consistency is key to performance in our everyday life; one of the problem with students with high intelligent quotient (IQ) too much confidence in themselves that they end up not studying on time for their examination or any other departmental activities. This will affect their academic performance. But students that engage themselves in consistent study tend to improve themselves on daily basis. They tend cover more grounds and understand their course notes before the commencement of their semester examination.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, consistent study is more effective than the having high IQ. Though the level of assimilation of students varies; students that understand things gradually tend to start studying on time. On the other hands, if a student with high IQ fails to read or study their course modules before the commencement of their semester examination, they tend to performance very poorly in their examination.

The undergraduate project is often the first major piece of independent research that a student will undertake. We are today in knowledge driven world where knowledge assets rather than physical assets and natural assets are considered more relevant in creating competitive and differential advantages.
Therefore, project work at the undergraduate level is an undertaking usually at the last lap of a journey of four or five years programme depending on the choice of course or academic pursuit/career. It is therefore a point where and when a student leaves a statement as a foot print on the part that he/she traversed over a period of time. The statement or the content of the project may be a building block for the future students or humanity at large.
Variables are features possessed by the members of a population. It is something that varies or changes in value according to situations or how treated. A variable is something that is capable of taking different values and the value of any particular variable depends on the condition under which it is undertaken.
In other words, Research help prepare students for lifelong learning which they will need in a future filled with rapid change. The Internet is increasingly used as a source of information and students need to be able to search for and assess the quality of the information they find. Everybody make decisions, and decisions are founded on information and insight. Good decisions are based on good information while bad decisions are based on poor, false or inaccurate information. Furthermore, students may learn to handle failure as a possible outcome. It is also claimed that it is stimulating for students to work with new, novel, knowledge, and that research can stimulate students’ enthusiasm for a subject. Undergraduate research can help reach pedagogical goals such as communication, problem solving, teamwork, informed learning and responsible learning.
CHOOSING A GOOD PROJECT TOPIC
Selecting the right topic is the first step in the research journey undergraduate research project or any other research project. A good research idea may arise from certain conditions or situations in the world. The present situation due to COVID-19 has created opportunities for research in microbiological, immunological, pathological, clinical, preventive and socio-economic aspects of the pandemic.
Undergraduate students must understand certain things while choosing a project topic. Don’t just assume you already have a project topic in mind you want to research on and so you wouldn’t need to make necessary enquiries. In as much in choosing a project topic, it is advisable you choose an undergraduate project topic that you are familiar with and find quite interesting, it is more important that you make sure that there are materials available for your choice of project topic.
Another point to note while choosing a project topic is case study. Ensure your case study is close. Avoid choosing case study that is very far from you or places that cannot be easily accessible thereby making you spend more than necessary. It is therefore, advisable that you choose project topics that are researchable and have materials available as well. Make all the necessary enquiries about your choice of project topic before submitting it to your supervisor for approval.
VARIABLES IN A PROJECT TOPIC
Variables are features possessed by the members of a population. It is something that varies or changes in value according to situations or how treated. A variable is something that is capable of taking different values and the value of any particular variable depends on the condition under which it is undertaken.
As an undergraduate student writing project, it is important you understand the variables in your research topic and try as much as possible to link the variables in your project topic. You already know that your project topic must have in it two or more variables and these variables must be treated independently in your research project. Therefore, in writing your aim and objectives, you must not forget to link these variables in your project work. Your aim and objectives must be linked. For example one of your objectives can be “the effect of social media on the performance of undergraduate students in Kwara state”. You can see how variables were linked in this example given. Therefore, you must take into cognizance the variables in your project topic while writing your aim and objectives in your undergraduate project.
WHY STUDENTS PREFER TOPICS WITH TWO VARIABLES
The process of, undertaking a research entails the consideration of measurable factors that are subject to change due to circumstances. These factors are called variables. The idea of variable is central to research because the title of a research is made up of it and it is also the focus of most study. Research often concerns relationships between variables. Researches are concerned with establishing interrelationships among variables and every aspect of research needs fundamental characteristics and ingredient, and these are called variables. A variable is not only something to be measured, it is what a researcher can also manipulate and control for as obtainable in experimental research.
Students prefer topics with two variables because having two variables in a research topic, makes it easier to research on as well as saves time. Also the relationship between two variables is easily ascertained than projects with more than two variables. It also reduces the stress of having to search for research materials for other variables in a project topic.
CONCLUSION
Variables are basic ingredients of every research and the new entrant to the field should study this aspect of research very critically because failure to have well defined variables at the beginning of the studies will definitely lead to blind alley along the line. Also to further achieve the fundamental purpose of research by making enquiry into the unknown with a view of finding solution to the problem, effective communication of research report must be done by researcher.

Learning by discovery is a technique for helping learners create and organize knowledge Involving a conscious participation and active inquiry. it typically takes place during problem-solving situations. The learner draws upon past knowledge and experience to infer underlying strategies and gain an understanding of concepts.
In short, discovery learning is a long-standing tradition that spans areas of psychology, education, and cognitive science. The Guided Discovery approach is a process in which students are encouraged to reinvent. The popular saying “don’t reinvent the wheel” is counterproductive in the context of learning as it attempts to impart knowledge through discoveries and inventions of other people. Real learning occurs when learners are immersed in authentic situations and are allowed to figure out the solutions and experience moment and discover critical knowledge themselves.
A guided discovery approach also benefits students, particularly girls and racial minorities, by providing the experience of learning as a process rather than promoting the perception of “innate ability.” Findings from some undergraduate research projects show that when students see other students executing tasks „without difficulty‟ they assume they do not possess the necessary innate ability to go into a STEM field. 24 It is necessary for students to learn that these skills are developed over time as a process and that intelligence is incremental rather than innate.
In guided discovery there is an appropriate level of guidance that allows students to experience virtually all the characteristics of pure discovery and it happens within realistic time frames. We have implemented a guided discovery approach that is seemingly unstructured and chaotic but internally well structured and logical. Our guided discovery approach allows students to personalize the concepts.
GUIDED DISCOVERY TEACHING METHOD
Discovery Learning is a learning method that encourages students to ask questions and formulate their own tentative answers, and to deduce general principles from practical examples or experiences. Other definition states that Discovery Learning is a learning situation in which the principal content of what is to be learned is not given but must be independently discovered by the student. The discovery learning mode requires that the student participates in making many of the decisions about what, how, and when something is to be learned and even plays a major role in making such decisions. Instead of being 'told' the content by the teacher, it is expected that the student will have to explore examples and from them 'discover' the principles or concepts, which are to be learned.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance is the extent to which a student, teachers or institution has attained their shot or long term educational goals. It is also the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Academic performance is very important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value.
Academic performance of students’ is a key feature in education. It is considered to be the center around which the whole education system revolves. The academic performance of students tells a lot about an institution as it determines the success or failure of that academic institution. Both academic institutions and students need to sort ways to improve on academic performance as it has serves as bedrock for knowledge acquisition and the development of skills.
However, the top most priority of all educators is academic performance of students. Academic [performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses.
The purpose of academic performance is to achieve an educational gap and learning. Academic performance however, involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to as diverging performance. An unsatisfactory academic performance is the one that is below the expected performance. Sometimes it can b related to teaching methods.
Academic performance of students is not restricted to only classroom performance it extends to even their undergraduate project. Undergraduate students need to understand that in as much as they try to excel in classroom examinations, tests and quizzes they must also look forward to writing an excellent undergraduate research project. Writing an undergraduate research project can be frustrating to undergraduate students’ especially for those who have no idea on how to get their project materials. Little wonder why undergraduate students’ even though excited to be in final year, are also anxious and full of fear at the thought of writing final year research project. But anxiety and fear can be taken care of with the knowledge of how to get your research materials.
GUIDED DISCOVERY TEACHING AND EDUCATION STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Guided discovery learning strategy is a learning situation in which the principal content of learning is not directly exposed by the teacher but left to be discovered by the learners, making the teacher a guardian and students active participants in the learning process. Education curriculum demands the adoption of more progressive strategies of discovery, inquiry, discussion, problem solving, dramatization/role playing, computer-assisted instruction and other relaxed classroom learning and teaching activities. The relevance of guided discovery method to education emanated from the suggestion that learners construct knowledge out of their experiences which is associated with pedagogical approaches that promote learning by doing or active learning. Constructivist teaching is based on the fact that skills and knowledge acquisition are not by passively receiving information and rote learning but involves active participation of the learners through knowledge construction, hands-on and minds-on activities. The teachers’ role in guided discovery is to serve as facilitator of learning in which education students are encouraged to be responsible, autonomous and construct their own understanding of each concept. Hence, the activities are learner-centered, democratic and interactive.
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, discovery learning is an intentional learning through problem solving under teacher supervision. It is a method through which teacher provides illustrative materials for students to study on their own. The method is an inductive method of guiding learners to discuss and organize ideas and process it by themselves.
Therefore, during guided discovery, the teacher invites students to initiate discussion and to react to other students’. Learners’ background knowledge and understanding of what is expected of them are most important consideration for effective use of this strategy. It can lead to an improved understanding of subjects, self discovery of more knowledge and better understanding its content can be achieved through guided discovery.

Every individual must, at one time or another, be confronted by the problem of occupational choice and many, encounter this problem when as students they are required to choose study programmes leading to their future careers, as parents helping their children select careers, as teachers, career officers or psychologists, who as part of their daily work, offer career guidance to students. Perhaps, the significance of career choice can be underscored by the influence careers have on an individual’s income, standard of living, status in society, social contacts, as well as emotional health and feelings of self-worth. Therefore, making suitable career decisions implies less wastage of resources in education and training. Furthermore, careers once chosen will probably affect an individual throughout their lives. Little wonder it is said that clarity and meaning of life are expressed in ones career. Consequently, it is by being armed with better information and proper guidance that individuals are able to make appropriate career decisions.
Due to need for specialization at the work place, choosing a career is not an easy and straight forward undertaking. It is a complicated and daunting task because the decision is influenced by various factors which could be extrinsic, intrinsic or a combination of both. The main intrinsic factors responsible for influencing career choice decisions include an individual’s personality, interests, self concept, attitudes and cultural identity. On the other hand, the main extrinsic factors include social contacts, role models; availability of resources such as information and finances, globalization, ethnic background, level of educational attainment, choice of subjects of study and differences in job characteristics.
Most people are heavily influenced either by professions that their parents favor; or the ones that their educational achievements have opened for them. Yet, other individuals are influenced by careers that offer prospects of higher benefits including salary, allowances and holidays. Gender influence students even in their choice of undergraduate project topics and the course module they read the most. Some the male gender can easily draw closer to courses that are more tedious than the female folks. However; there are also those who choose to follow careers that they have a passion for regardless of the prospects of the benefits; for the reason that a career is a critical element in determining an individual’s daily routine, life activities, standard of living; and the spiritual and social aspects of life. In fact a career affects the ordering of one’s entire life. Although there are differences among various population groups, generally extrinsic influences on career choice decisions are mostly influenced by parents, peers, friends, relatives, role models, and teachers especially career counselors. This is possible through social support or interaction. However, the extent to which each of them influences career choice decisions varies from one population to the other.
GENDER VARIATION
Gender variance, or gender nonconformity, is behavior or gender expression by an individual that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. Gender is a psychosocial construct most people use to classify a person as male, female, both, or neither.
CAREER CHOICE
Career choice refers to the profession and job which an individual has decided to go into which will lead to economic/social independence, productive and fulfilled life. Making a career choice is one’s ability to identify and select a type of occupation or vocation that will enable him/her achieve a life goal. It also involves an individual utilizing information and knowledge about self, world of work and opportunities in his or her environment to make career decisions.
Most individuals have an interest in or affinity toward certain career fields or occupations. Such aspirations and preferences are formed early in life and are a product of genetics, socioeconomic status, gender, personality, and learning history. These early hopes and dreams are modified (positively and/or negatively) by forces in society that act upon individuals and groups of individuals as they make career-related decisions (e.g.. labor market constraints, competitive admission to schools and programs. opportunities provided by special programs, etc.). Career choices result when individual aspirations and preferences are reexamined in light of the constraining forces imposed by the social environment in which that individual lives. It is possible to differentiate several levels of career choice based upon the degree to which that choice has been subjected to the limitations of societal constraints.
GENDER AND CAREER CHOICE AMONG UNDERGRADUATES
Before making career choices, students are often provided with a list of careers from which they are supposed to make choices. However, most students lack adequate information regarding various careers hence the choices they make are embedded in their perception of the ideal job and the subjects they study in secondary school. Perhaps the only support students get within the school system is from career masters or counselors.
Choice of career among undergraduates in this ever-evolving economic and technological advancing society has been a major issue that needs to be carefully addressed. A good number of undergraduates are studying certain courses not because they were chosen willingly or carefully guided but due to certain influences beyond their control, consequently, they end up doing a job totally different from what they studied in the universities.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, in as much as every individual in this planet aspire for good quality life and appreciable social status. The only determinant of these is a good choice of career. Making a career involves an individual utilizing information and knowledge about self, world of work and opportunity in his or her society to make career decisions. Career selection is one of the most important choices students make; Undoubtedly, this decision will influence their activities throughout their lives. Career development is enhanced by appreciating the fact that a person’s current vocational status was as a result of previous experience which when correlated may suggest the ideal future.
Undergraduates’ students must understand that choosing a career is a delicate decision that cannot be taken in a hurry. If students are not well guided, lots of misdirected decisions may be taken which may have grave implications on the young person that should have been helped to achieve a career choice success. If care is not taken, a student may emphasize interest far above his ability and therefore makes decision that may be inappropriate at the end of the day.
Therefore, having prior knowledge about a career is important to developing and nurturing interest in the career. In fact prior knowledge prepares an individual on the conditions obtaining for a career and one will decide to enter a career from a point of knowledge. Knowledge on a career can be acquired through doing research and consultations; training, exposure as well as industrial attachment. Other avenues through which individuals receive prior knowledge for their careers include mentorship, commitment, motivation and socializing with people in the career of interest. Making informed and considered career decisions accrue various benefits to the employer and the individual. Another important factor that influences Career choice decisions is the possibility of progression in work hierarchy.

Education is the bedrock of development. No nation can develop without sound education. Education has over the years been given much attention and priority in African countries, especially in Nigeria, the government at all levels, has discovered that the quality of education offered in Nigerian educational system determines the quality of development experienced. Education prepares the citizens for variety of functions within the economic, social, political, religious and other structures of the societies. It makes individuals responsive, responsible and acceptably fit in to the society. The needs for teachers to be regularly updated and developed continually to better their professional capabilities as regarding instructional delivery in their subject knowledge cannot be undermined.
Teacher professional development encompasses all changes in teaching approaches teachers can acquire towards teaching profession. All in-service professional development activities, teachers can access within the teaching profession, to develop their teaching and learning tasks towards learners improved academic performance. Professional development of teachers helps them to acquire relevant and new skills, ideas, knowledge to develop teaching and learning of their subjects. Teachers cannot rely only on the entry knowledge they start the career with, they need to experience professional growth like other professions. Their efficiency is measured or determined with learners’ academic performance. Teachers are to be regularly developed to teach effectively. Their efficiency shows from their learners’ academic performance.
For quality education to be achieved and sustained, teachers are to be exposed to effective professional development activities by the education leaders, scholars, service providers, policymakers and other stakeholders in Nigeria. Teachers’ mastery of the subjects gets improved due to skills acquired in professional development. In the training activities, experienced facilitators are used to multi-task teachers’ intelligences to problem solving skills which improve their knowledge of their subjects. Academic performance of learners in areas of departmental examination, undergraduate research projects and other academic works must be the driving force for teachers to be regularly developed. Teachers are to be exposed to various professional activities that can boost or promote development in all ramifications; Nigeria desires to be technologically developed like other developed countries and to really sustain her “giant” of Africa title. The needs for teachers’ empowerment through rigorous and well planned varieties of professional development of teachers across the profession should not be undermined. Drive for professional development of teachers in Nigerian schools will also propel other African countries to follow suit.
IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION
In-service education can simply be defined as the relevant courses and activities in which a serving teacher may participate to upgrade his professional knowledge, skills, and competence in the teaching profession. Therefore, it encompasses all forms of education and training given to a teacher who is already on the job of teaching and learning. It includes the entire programmes-educational social or others, in which the teacher takes vital part. It also includes all the extra education which the teacher received at different institutions by way of refresher courses and all the travels and visits which he undertakes.
In-service education is staff development which is a deliberate and continuous process involving the identification and discussion of present and anticipated needs of individual staff for furthering their job satisfaction and career prospects and of the institution for supporting its academic work and plans, and implementation of programmes of staff activities designed for the harmonious satisfaction of these needs.
In-service programs help teachers acquire or deepen their knowledge about the subject matter content, teaching skills, and assessment methods required to implement an existing or a new curriculum as well as assist them in working effectively with parents and other community members.
The need for training in education particularly for teachers is important to improve the quality of education. Teachers are crucial in implementing educational reforms in accordance with the aspiration of the National Philosophy of Education. The success of a school curriculum is closely related to its effective implementation. Teachers have to be personally aware of the school curriculum, improve and enhance the necessary skills to interpret the concept changes accurately and to implement the modified curriculum according its requirements, aims and objectives. As such, the need for in-service training or staff development programme for teachers plays an essential role in successful education reform. It also serves as a bridge between prospective and experienced educators to meet the new challenges of guiding students towards higher standards of learning and self development. In developing the professionalism status of teachers, the training program such as in-service training should not be run away from the reformation that occurs. In-service training has for many years been the driving force behind much changes that has occurred in the area of teaching and learning. As in any other profession, it is vital that teachers keep up to date on the most current concepts, thinking and research in their field. This, in turn supports in their ‘lifelong learning’ as educators, as professionals and as individuals who are responsible for the education of the next generation. Teachers play an active and vital role in the development of productive and well educated students.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION AND STUDENTS PERFORMANCE
The need for in-service training in schools is getting more attention for teachers to equip with new knowledge and skills for them to face new challenges and reformation in education. In-service training can enhance the professionalism of teachers who can contribute to the organization to achieve its goals. In-service training is a professional and personal educational activity for teachers to improve their efficiency, ability, knowledge and motivation in their professional work.
Professional development activities of teachers are to develop/ improve teaching responsibilities, equip them with professional capacity that ensure effective and efficient delivery of teaching and learning, which eventually lead to improved academic performance of students. Teaching as a profession, in most prominent developed countries has been seen and taken as a valid means of igniting sustainability of development in different spheres of life. Teachers are heavily invested on in these countries; there is need to sustain and improve quality education. Professional development activities are designed for teachers to equip them with necessary skills and to make them relevant and competitive in the global community. These activities are thoroughly planned, executed, implemented and evaluated by teachers themselves and also the school management teams. Teachers are to be observed while teaching to identify the teaching gaps that need to be improved upon. They are to be evaluated to determine professional activities needed and also to be evaluated after the trainings to determine the improvement or impacts of the professional development they have attended.
CONCLUSION
Education is the wheel of development. Teachers are the major stakeholders that determine or affect the quality of education; it is only the quality education that can promote necessary developments across the country. Nigerian education system is the propeller for development in all ramifications just like other developed countries; teachers are the drivers to that developmental knowledge that can be used to attain total development. Teachers who will facilitate learning should be efficient in instructional tasks delivery of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. Professional development activities are designed or aimed at effectiveness and efficiency of teachers in schools. Due to these, varied in-service professional development programmes/ activities are to be structured and designed to implement National policy of Education in Nigeria.
More so, professional development could also be well designed to introduce teachers to new curricula, new ideas, and new approaches to teaching. Their knowledge and skills can also be updated on their subject matters through collaborations of ideas, mentorship opportunities among teachers and skills acquisition and changed attitudes to arsenal all facilities in educational system which will in turn lead to an improved academic performance.

Instructional materials are basic channel of communication especially in teaching and learning. It is one of the best teaching method or technique to get students attention and also pass the message or the subject under discourse properly. Every teacher desires for their students to participate actively in class and have a better understanding of the subject or topic; this desire extends to the student academic performance in terminal examination, undergraduate projects, seminar and paper presentation. Active participation of learners will also increase motivation and also minimize abstraction associated with teaching and learning, thus increasing learning experience. However, all of these can be facilitated by making use of instructional materials and resources which can minimize abstraction associated with some subjects such as Mathematics. Teaching can only be effective when adequate and relevant instructional materials are used. Many educators have reported the importance of instructional materials in teaching. Teaching and learning cannot be effective without adequate and relevant use of instructional materials especially in rural schools where assimilation can be quite difficult as a result of the environment and lack of adequate teaching materials.
See Free Project Topics And Materials On Instructional Materials
Instructional materials in the classroom are very important for the purpose of bringing about effective teaching and learning. Instructional resources in teaching and learning make students to learn more and retain better what they have been taught and also promotes and sustains students’ interest in the subject been taught. It also allows the learners to discover themselves and their abilities. Instructional materials have a way of also enriching learners’ knowledge and reinforcing verbal instruction.
Students learn best if they are given the opportunity to see and to make observation of what they are taught. A good instructional material might be a substitute for real life objects in the classroom as against the use of exploratory method.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Instructional Materials, also known as Teaching/Learning Materials, are any collection of materials including animate and inanimate objects and human and non-human resources that a teacher may use in teaching and learning situations to help achieve desired learning objectives. Instructional materials refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during teaching and learning process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching. But recently, instructional materials help to provide variations in the ways in which messages are sent across. In using instructional materials teachers and students do not only extend the range of sense organs we use but also extend the range of materials used for convening the same message through the same organ. For instance, in teaching a topic a teacher can manipulate real objects or use their stimulators. Instructional materials therefore constitute the media of exchange through which a message transaction is facilitated between a source and a receiver. In addition to extending the range of materials that can be used to convey the same instructional message to learners’ instructional materials also facilitate the 'process' nature of communication. In this passage, the process nature of communication implies that both the source and the receiver of a message are actively involved in a communication encounter. Infarct, it means that both the receiver and the source share and exchange ideas, feelings in any communication
THE NEED FOR INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
A) IT BOOST STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
One of the reasons for the need for instructional materials is because it boosts students’ academic performance. Most students tend to learn faster, comprehend and retain what they are taught when instructional materials are used in those teachings thereby leading to an improved academic performance.
B) IT IMPROVES STUDENT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT A SUBJECT
Another need for instructional materials is that it improves students’ knowledge about a particular subject or subjects. Students’ knowledge about subjects improves when instructional materials are used in teaching and learning. Reason been that there are some subjects that are so abstract and therefore difficult to learn or even retain. But with the use of instructional materials, such subjects can be brought to life and students can gain a better understanding and retain for a long time.
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, Instructional materials are materials which assist teachers to make their lessons explicit to learners. They are used to transmit information, ideas and notes to learners. Therefore, in order to use instructional materials and aid more effectively, Instructional materials used must make teaching and learning more real and meaningful to the learner. The materials should not be substitute for learning but must contribute to the learning process itself. Teachers must also e conscious of the time spent in teaching and; learning especially when using instructional materials they must ensure the time spent commensurate with the lesson period allowed.
However, not all instructional materials are suitable for teaching and learning as some instructional materials can be so complex that the learners end up more confused than they were even before the use of the instructional materials that is suppose to bring to life what is in theory. Therefore, Instructional materials should not be so complex that the time is spent on just learning to use them but should make learning more real and meaningful to the learner.
And finally, the use of several kinds of instructional materials to explain one particular concept must also take cognizance of individual difference among the learners especially for those in the rural areas of the country.

Parent involvement in a child's early education is consistently found to be positively associated with a child's academic performance. Specifically, children whose parents are more involved in their education have higher levels of academic performance than children whose parents are involved to a lesser degree. Parent-child interactions, specifically stimulating and responsive parenting practices, are important influences on a child's academic development. Parental involvement, defined as motivated parental attitudes and behaviors intended to influence children’s educational well-being. It is a multidimensional and bidirectional construct that has been shown to have clear links with social and academic outcomes for children. Traditionally parental involvement has been defined as engaging parents in school-based activities and events related to their child’s education. However, a more comprehensive view of parental involvement goes beyond just parent activities in school settings but in subject- oriented participation. This comprehensive view of parental involvement is grounded in the understanding that children’s academic success is influenced by multiple contexts (e.g., home, school, and community) in a dynamic and bidirectional manner. Parental involvement has shown considerable variation to occur in the level of involvement and this variation to largely depend on the socio-economic position and ethnic background of the parents. At the same time, parental involvement has indeed been found to influence the cognitive and social development of children. The important role of a strong positive bond between homes and schools play in the development and education of children. Successful students have strong academic support from their involved parents. Furthermore, well established and effective schools where students are learning and achieving, has consistently shown that these schools, despite often working in low social and economic neighborhoods, have strong and positive school-home relationships. More importantly, these effective schools have made a real effort in reaching out to their students’ families in order to bring about liaison and cooperation. Several Studies have shown that students performed better academically and had more positive school attitudes if they had parents who were aware, knowledgeable and involved.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Parent involvement can be described as social relations that are imbued with norms of trust, obligation, or reciprocity. Parent involvement is conceived of as a form of social capital. Parents invest their time, attention, and resources in their children with the expectation of a return – namely that their children will perform better in school. Parent involvement encompasses three broad domains, parent-child relations, parent-school relations, and parent-parent relations. In all three cases, it is generally assumed that parents invest time with their children, school personnel, or other parents with the expectation that their involvement will yield a tangible return. The exact form of the expected return is not always clear, but can include improved educational expectations, improved role performance (i.e. better attendance, increased homework done, reduced delinquency, etc.), increased achievement, or strengthened relationships with school personnel or other parents.
Parental involvement refers to the amount of participation a parent has when it comes to schooling and her child's life. Some schools foster healthy parental involvement through events and volunteer opportunities, but sometimes it's up to the parents to involve themselves with their children's education. You can ensure that your child receives the benefits from parental involvements by staying up to date on what is happening in the classroom, helping your child with school opportunities and knowing correct safety procedure for the school. Education begins at home. The responsibility to socialize and educate children is a shared obligation between parents and schools. In order for a child to reach academic achievement, parents must be involved and participate in the educational process. The more parental involvement, the more students are likely to become productive members of society as well as excel in academics. Parental involvement impacts student academics. Children are likely to excel in academics when their parents' actively participate in their education. Education is necessary and important to society. Education provides insight, increases knowledge and skill. It is important to the development of human capital and an individual's ability to provide a better living. Thus, the education of parents as well as their economic status is crucial elements to the educational outcomes of students. Economics plays an integral role in this educational experience, and even plays a substantial role in student confidence, further exacerbating its influence.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation rates and results from standardized tests. Academic achievement is the extent to which a student or institution has achieved either short or long term educational goals. Achievement may be measured through students’ grade point average, whereas for institutions, achievement may be measured through graduation rates.
See undergraduate projects and ideas on academic performance
Academic performance of students is a key feature in education. It is considered to be the center around which the whole education system revolves. The academic performance of students determines the success or failure of any academic institution. Academic performances of students have a direct impact on the socio-economic development of a country. Students’ academic performance serves as bedrock for knowledge acquisition and the development of skills. Additionally, the top most priority of all educators is academic performance of students. Academic performance is the knowledge gained which is assessed by marks by a teacher and/or educational goals set by students and teachers to be achieved over a specific period of time. They added that these goals are measured by using continuous assessment or examinations results.
IMPORTANCE OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS
The importance of parent involvement in academic performance of students cannot be overemphasized. This is because it has lots of positive impact on students and also influences students’ relationship with their teachers. One of the importances of parents’ involvement in academic performance of students is that children are likely to excel in academics when their parents' actively participate in their education. Education is necessary and important to society. Education provides insight, increases knowledge and skill. It is important to the development of human capital and an individual's ability to provide a better living. Thus, the education of parents as well as their economic status is crucial elements to the educational outcomes of students. Economics plays an integral role in this educational experience, and even plays a substantial role in student confidence, further exacerbating its influence.
CONCLUSION
Expanding the involvement of parents in the education of their children has recently been viewed as an important strategy to advance the effectiveness and improve the quality of education. Within the framework of providing greater autonomy for schools, strengthening parental involvement is also considered important with the underlying thought that parents can be construed as a force with a vested interest and thereby the potential to balance the efforts of directorates and school boards at times. In addition, strengthening the cooperation between schools and parents appears to be critical to improve the school careers of disadvantaged groups, such as ethnic minority and low socio-economic status pupils.

Students’ academic performance is a key feature in education. It is considered to be the centre around which the whole education system revolves. The academic performance of students determines the success or failure of any academic institution. The academic performance of students serves as bedrock or knowledge acquisition and the development of skills. However, the top most priority of educators is the academic performance of students.
We are today in knowledge driven world where knowledge assets rather than physical assets and natural assets are considered more relevant in creating competitive and differential advantages. For this reason, attempts are made at micro and macro levels to increase the stock of knowledge assets as a strategic choice for increasing development at diverse levels. Early development is always a better choice, in any form of development, so as to earn the best fruit of input or labor.
Therefore, it is important that students strive to make excellent result in school. They must make sure to always stay on top of their game by striving for a high CGPA. Having a good grade in school does not only boost your confident, it also gives you an edge over your counterparts after school especially when you are seeking for a job.
CGPA
GPA is an abbreviation for grade point average. It is a standard method of calculating a student’s average grade over a stipulated period, like one term/semester. GPA is calculated by dividing the average grade points a student achieves by the total credit hours attended by the student.
CGPA stands for cumulative Grade Point Average. It is used to denote a student’s overall average performance throughout their academic program, be it a high school, a bachelor’s degree, or a master’s degree program. To calculate a CGPA, you simply divide your total score of grade points for all subjects throughout your semesters by the total number of credit hours attended.
In the same way you receive an average mark at the end of a class, your GPA is an average of how you fared in all your courses over a given period of time. When an admission officer looks at your required transcript, the first thing they see is the results of the effort you put into your studies. Beyond that, your final grades and GPA can also tell a story of who you are. They get a glimpse of your commitment, perseverance and time management skills. They can get an idea of what your work ethic and study habits ate and how productive you are.
Of course, having a higher GPA also means that you are smart and able to understand difficult concepts easily. If your GPA is high enough, you may also be eligible for scholarships to help pay for tuition. On top of that, your future employer might also consider your GPA important. This is why it is crucial that you focus on achieving good grades while in school.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance or achievement is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long term educational goals like the completion of their undergraduate research projects and materials. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor’s degree represent academic achievement. Academic performance determines the human capital development of an economy, it enables students and parents to know the current academic state of the students, and it determines the failure and success of an academic institution.
Academic performance is the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance; graduation rates and results from standardized tests.
Academic success is important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value. Academic success is important because working people will need higher levels of education to tackle the technologically demanding occupations of the future.
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CGPA DROPS
1) PRINT ALL YOUR RESULT AND CHECK YOUR PERFORMANCE
Printing all your result and checking your performance is one of the steps to take when your CGPA drops. This is because printing out all your result will enable you to see clearly your academic performance, evaluate your performance and know where you need to improve or discover what you are not doing right.
2) COMPARE THE PRESENT AND PAST PERFORMANCE
The next thing to do is to compare your present and past performance. You should always evaluate your performance. Find out how you are improving whether you are making progress or not. This comparison will help you make necessary adjustment where needed.
3) TREAT ALL YOUR COURSES AS EQUALS WHEN STUDYING
Most students make the mistake of giving more attention to a particular course than others. There by leaving other courses to suffer. As a student, you must learn how to treat all courses equally, give same attention to all so that you can improve in all and not in some. When you are good at some courses while you fail at some, those courses you fail will bring down your CGPA. Therefore, you must treat all courses equal while studying. Dedicate same time and attention to all
4) IMPROVE YOUR STUDY TIME
Your study time need to be improved if you must have an improved CGPA. You need to dedicate enough time to studying and research as it will go a long way in helping you improve academically.
5) AVOID DISTRACTION
You must also try as much as possible to avoid distraction. Whatever that will distract you from studying or dedicating enough time to your study must be avoided as seen as a distraction to your academic performance.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Academic success is important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value. Academic success is important because working people will need higher levels of education to tackle the technologically demanding occupations of the future.
Therefore, it is important that students strive to make excellent result in school. They must make sure to always stay on top of their game by striving for a high CGPA. Having a good grade in school does not only boost your confident, it also gives you an edge over your counterparts after school especially when you are seeking for a job.

Students’ questions play an important role in meaningful learning and scientific inquiry. They are a potential resource for both teaching and learning. The formulation of a good question is a creative act. Asking questions in class is one of the thinking processing skills which is structurally embedded in the thinking operation of critical thinking, creative thinking, and a problem solving. Students asking questions in class plays an important role in the teaching and learning process.
Questions raised by students activate their prior knowledge, focus their learning efforts, and help them elaborate on their learning efforts, and help them elaborate on their knowledge as well. However, the act of composing questions by students focuses the attention of students on content, main ideas, and checking if content is understood. The ability to ask good questions is also an important component of scientific literacy, where the goal of making individuals critical consumers of scientific knowledge requires such a facility.
For students, posing their own questions is a first step towards filling their knowledge gaps and resolving puzzlement. The process of asking questions allows them to articulate their current understanding of a topic, to make connections with other ideas, and also to become aware 0of what they do or do not know. In this regard, students’ generated questions are also an important aspect of both self and peer assessment. The skill of questioning is also important in problem-solving and decision making.
Additionally, asking good questions in class by students’ has the potential to facilitate productive thinking in students, enhance creativity and higher order thinking. However, the ability to generate interesting, productive ideas and answers is dependent on being able to first come up with good questions. More so, while questions serve useful functions for learners, they are also helpful to teachers in prompting reflective thought and student engagement.
Students’ questions provide insight into their knowledge, understanding, and puzzlement, and act as a window into their minds. Thus, for the teacher, such questions can diagnose students’ understanding by revealing the quality of students’ thinking and conceptual understanding, conceptual difficulties, alternative frameworks, and confusion about concepts, their reasoning, and what students’ want to know. When these puzzles are solved by the reason of the answers provided by the teacher, it automatically improves students’ knowledge on that particular topic or subject matter under discourse. The type of question and the content embedded therein can also indicate the questioner’s depth of thinking.
Therefore, students’ should be encouraged to ask questions in class on any topic they don’t understand or need more clarity on as this will help to maintain a steady flow between teacher and students’.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Academic performance is the extent to which a student, teachers or institution has attained their shot or long term educational goals. It is also the measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Academic performance is very important because it is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value.
Academic performance of students’ is a key feature in education. It is considered to be the center around which the whole education system revolves. The academic performance of students tells a lot about an institution as it determines the success or failure of that academic institution. Both academic institutions and students need to sort ways to improve on academic performance as it has serves as bedrock for knowledge acquisition and the development of skills.
However, the top most priority of all educators is academic performance of students. Academic [performance involves meeting goals, achievements and objectives set in the program or course that a student attends. These are expressed through grades which are the result of an assessment that involves passing or not certain tests, subjects or courses.
The purpose of academic performance is to achieve an educational gap and learning. Academic performance however, involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to as diverging performance. An unsatisfactory academic performance is the one that is below the expected performance. Sometimes it can b related to teaching methods.
Academic performance of students is not restricted to only classroom performance it extends to even their undergraduate project. Undergraduate students need to understand that in as much as they try to excel in classroom examinations, tests and quizzes they must also look forward to writing an excellent undergraduate research project. Writing an undergraduate research project can be frustrating to undergraduate students’ especially for those who have no idea on how to get their project materials. Little wonder why undergraduate students’ even though excited to be in final year, are also anxious and full of fear at the thought of writing final year research project. But anxiety and fear can be taken care of with the knowledge of how to get your research materials. Students can get their undergraduate project materials online. You can simply Google your project topic or a particular variable in your undergraduate project topic to get materials online. You get to find related research materials that are related to your project topic that way you can use it as part of your undergraduate project materials.
WHY STUDENTS ASK QUESTIONS IN CLASS
1) TO HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE TOPIC
One of the reasons why students ask questions in class is to have a better understanding of the topic. As the saying goes that no one misses his way when he asks questions so it is in the classroom. When students ask questions, it is not because they feel like it but rather they seek clarity and better understanding of the subject matter and topic under discourse.
However, it is also important that teachers create conducive atmosphere that allows students to ask questions on topics they do not understand or seek further knowledge on.
2) TO HAVE OTHER IDEAS AND OPTIONS WHEN FACED WITH SIMILAR QUESTIONS
Another reason why students ask questions is to have other ideas and options when faced with similar questions. Most of the questions students ask is just so they can defensive when confronted with such questions outside the walls of the school environment or when in an intellectual gathering where intellectual ideas are shared and various opinions given on a particular subject matter. Therefore, when students get substantial answer to their questions, it boosts their confidence as well as makes them eager to make contributions to intellectual discourse wherever they find themselves.
HOW TO ASK MEANINGFUL QUESTIONS IN CLASS
1) ALWAYS TAKE DOWN NOTES OF LECTURES
It is important that students understand that in as much as it is encouraged that they ask questions in class, it is more important that they understand how to ask meaningful and relevant questions. One of such ways is to always take down notes of lectures. There is no way you would be in steady flow with the lecture in class if you don’t take don notes. Taking down lecture notes not only help you identify areas you need clarity, but also serves as a tool for your personal and group reading as well as material for further study. Therefore, it is important that you take down lecture notes as it will also help you not to kiss out on some important points made by the lecturer.
2) TRY TO FORM QUESTIONS FROM THE NOTE YOU TOOK
Another point to note is forming questions from the lecture note you took down. Most students have the habit of neglecting their lecture notes immediately after that particular lecture until the next lecture. But it is important that students know how important it is to revisit your lecture note, read and form questions from them to be asked in the next class. By so doing, you are helping yourself and also a way of gaining more knowledge. It also allows you time to go through the lecture note properly and take note of what you don’t understand or seek more clarity on.
3) ASK THE QUESTIONS AND WRITE DOWN THE RESPONSE FROM YOUR LECTURER
After writing down the questions either identified in class during lecture or formed from the lecture note you took down, you must not forget to write down the response/answers given by your lecturer on that particular question. It will help you retain and you can always go back to your note to read the answers given by your lecturer. Writing down the response given to your questions by your lecturer will can serve as a tool and motivation for further research and knowledge.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be said that students asking questions in class can help students to monitor their own learning, explore and scaffold their ideas, steer thinking in certain specific directions, and advance their understanding of specific concepts and phenomena.
Students’ questions can also be harnessed for lessons that involve class discussions, argumentation, investigations, problem-based learning and project work.
Teachers must understand that questions don’t just emerge spontaneously from students’, rather they have to be encouraged and teachers have to specifically employ strategies to elicit them. This is because ultimately, it is the teacher who holds the key to providing an atmosphere that encourages pr discourages students’ questions. To nurture the spirit of inquiry in students and cultivate questioning as a habit of mind, a central role for any teacher, therefore, is to foster a classroom environment where it is intellectually, socially and academically rewarding for students’ to pose thoughtful questions.
In summary, asking questions by students’ in class improves their knowledge which can lead to an improved general academic performance.

Summarizing lecture note can be boring but yet necessary in the sense that it help you stay in tune with your everyday lecture as well as help you during your study time. It also helps you refresh your memory on past topics. Forming the habit of note taking during lecture also serves as a reminder to what your lecturers said or how a particular question was answered. It is during lecture that some lecturers tend to leak out some secrets on how they expect their students to answer their examination questions. This is another reason why as an undergraduate student you should never miss out on any lecture except in a situation where you cannot help it but to be absent.
Get good at writing up your lecture notes and you’re far more likely to do well in your exams, quizzes and your essays. And who doesn’t want to succeed in school? The sooner you can learn how to take lecture notes properly, the more good habits you’ll form and the better your overall academic success will be.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENDING LECTURES
As a student attending lectures is very important because most of the times all you need to know about a particular topic is just to be in attendance. When you are present in a lecture, it gives you the opportunity to ask any question pertaining the topic or course of discuss in order to gain clarity. There are lots of good things attached to attending lectures; it gives you ideas on how to form undergraduate project topics; assignment topics; improve the ease of understanding of your courses and other related subjects. Most of the times, especially when you pay keen interest in a lecture, you may not necessarily have to read your lecture notes over and over again to comprehend and retain. This is because it has been explained in clear terms during the lecture and you may have asked questions which answers have been provided. As a matter of fact, in most cases the answers given to questions students ask in a lecture sticks almost forever in their memory and they can answer them whenever they are asked or come across such questions in examinations.
There are lots of benefits in attending lectures as a student. In as much as reading/studying after lectures is good, but it will do you more good if you attend lectures because nothing beats having firsthand information rather than the one you heard from someone else. You may think you can collect lecture notes from your colleagues but not all students get to capture or note down the important information during lectures. But if you were to be in attendance, you can note down all that needs to be written down for own good and to be used as a study material.
WHY YOU TAKE NOTES DURING LECTURES
Some undergraduate students do not understand the reason why they should take notes during lectures reason why they don’t take lectures seriously or see it as a waste of time. Lecture notes will serve you while studying that is, you can go through your lecture note, read, understand more and retain as well. It will also help you identify areas you do not understand so you can ask in the next lecture so as to gain more clarity. In some cases, it will challenge you to do more research on your own without necessarily asking your lecturer.
WHY SUMMARIZING YOUR LECTURE NOTE IS IMPORTANT
Summarizing lecture note is advised while studying. This is because it will help you get the real idea of what the topic is all about. There are some topics that have ambiguous notes and reading such topics during study time can be boring and uninteresting. So in order to make it an interesting one and also easy to read and understand, you can simply summarize the note that way you can easily get the main point of the discourse.
CONCLUSION
Conclusively, it is good for students to inculcate the habit of writing lecture note. Get good at writing up your lecture notes and you’re far more likely to do well in your exams, quizzes and your essays. Because the sooner you can learn how to take lecture notes properly, the more good habits you’ll form and the better your overall academic success will be.